Until recently, little was known about the origin of the injury. That changed when McCaffrey's father, former NFL wide receiver Ed McCaffrey, appeared on the "Ross Tucker Football Podcast" (h/t Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area). He shared that his son's injury likely stemmed from his intense training regimen.
"Tendinitis is an over-training injury, meaning you're training too hard or doing too much, and it turns into tendinitis," Ed explained. "And if I would say Christian has a weakness, it's that he sometimes has to protect himself from himself in terms of training too much and doing too much.
"We've already had that discussion. Next offseason, we need to re-evaluate what you're doing."
Christian is coming off an NFL Offensive Player of the Year season in which the 49ers played into February, reaching the Super Bowl. His father believes that the extra playing time, paired with his intense offseason workouts, may have contributed to the injury.
"But it's so hard to tell him to dial it back," Ed continued. "I'm sure his coaches will echo the same sentiment. It's like, even in practice, you don't need every rep, but he never wants to sacrifice a rep, never wants to come out of a game."
The 49ers have acknowledged that placing Christian on injured reserve was a way to protect him from himself, ensuring he would miss at least four games to recover.
"I prepare every week to play," Christian said last month. "My mindset every week is I'm going to play. There's been weeks where I'll go the full week, not even feeling good enough to do the walkthrough, and then I wake up, and the body's capable of a lot of cool things."
Ed added that it's difficult for Christian to stray from the training routine that has worked for him for so long. However, this time off might force him to reconsider his offseason approach.
As for the Achilles tendinitis, the remedy was particularly frustrating for the hard-working player.
"The only treatment is rest, which is so frustrating," Ed said. "And I will say this, Ross: there is no player—I feel comfortable saying this—there's no player on the planet, in any sport, that pays as much money to have people help take care of his body than Christian does. Anybody in any sport on the planet.
"So, obviously, he's frustrated that he can't play. He loves his teammates. Football is his life. He wants to be out on the field. Win, lose, or draw, he wants to be out there battling with his brothers, and he's not doing it. So, sure, that's pretty frustrating."
You can listen to Ed McCaffrey's entire interview below.
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