With the San Francisco 49ers putting the pads on Tuesday for the first hitting practice of training camp, rookie coach Jim Tomsula gave an update on injuries and players sitting out practices.
Receivers Bruce Ellington and Issac Blakeney both have muscle strains in their legs, though Tomsula said Ellington’s injury is not on the same leg that slowed him in offseason workouts.
Rookie offensive lineman Ben Gottschalk was set to undergo a “procedure” on a foot at Stanford Tuesday afternoon.
Left tackle Joe Staley will return to practice today after having a “veteran’s off day” on Monday.
Tomsula said running back Reggie Bush, who has yet to participate in team drills, is essentially getting the Justin Smith treatment. “Bush, you can kind of put in a category with me, I had a D-lineman here who you didn’t see practice a whole lot and then he played pretty well in football games,” Tomsula said with a laugh. “So you can just go ahead and put him in that category. Not hiding anything.”
Tomsula said other players whose reps would be closely monitored were: OLB Aaron Lynch (hamstring), DE Darnell Dockett (knee), DB Jimmie Ward (foot) and RB Kendall Hunter (knee).
“We’d rather be proactive than reactive,” Tomsula said.
