Three players — tight end Jordan Reed, running back Tevin Coleman, and cornerback K'Waun Williams — had their practice windows opened this week and hope to be activated off injured reserve soon. Whether or not that will happen before Sunday's game has yet to be determined.
Lynch provided the following updates:
Safety Jimmie Ward (quadricep) was inactive this past Sunday against the New England Patriots but returned to practice on Thursday. Although, he was limited.
"He's fairly fresh off that injury," Lynch said on the Murph & Mac show. "Jimmie's very eager to get out there, but we've got to make sure that he's right. Again, we'll put him out there today (in practice) — provided he shows up here good this morning — put him out there today, and then really have a tough judgment, and one that could go right down to the wire because I think it was last Thursday that he hurt himself in practice. We've got to make sure that thing is properly healed."
As for the three players working to return from injured reserve, Lynch said that Coleman (knee) has looked good in practice this week, which has left the 49ers encouraged about his potential return.
"Wednesday, he kind of just got introduced, did some individual drills," Lynch said. "Yesterday, he got a heavy workload in practice. So, a lot of that is how he's going to respond, how his knee is going to respond today. We're hopeful with Tevin."
Lynch told radio listeners that "there's a chance" fans could see Williams (ACL sprain) return on Sunday. Much of that will be determined by how he responds to the last two days of practices.
"He's been out here, and he's doing well," the GM said. "... He's done a really good job in his rehab. His knee and hip were bothering him, but he's done a really good job of kind of getting all that out of there."
Then you have Reed, a valuable weapon when George Kittle had to miss two games earlier in the season. He has been sidelined since Week 3.
"He's looked good," Lynch said. "... The guy's a special athlete. I've always talked about how those guys tend to heal a little faster. He has kind of beat the original prognosis with that MCL tear (probably meant MCL sprain) that he had and looking really good.
"He's gone out there, and I would say we were doubtful early in the week, but he's looked good. So, we'll just kind of see how that goes. That's one that could go all the way up to pregame on Sunday. He helps us when he's out there. ... He's trending in the right direction. Not necessarily speaking towards this weekend but in general.
"So, we're very encouraged. As for this weekend, I just don't know. I do know that he's surprised us how good he's looked out there this week."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.
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