Talanoa Hufanga cleared for further action, update on Aaron Banks' injury

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan provided a mixed bag of injury updates on Friday as he wrapped up the week of practice ahead of the team's preseason game against the New Orleans Saints. Shanahan noted earlier in the week that safety Talanoa Hufanga, who is currently recovering from an ACL injury sustained in Week 11 of the 2023 season, will have an important check-up on Thursday that will inform the team of his timeline for return.

“It was good. I think he came back late last night,” Shanahan said. “It cleared him to take the next steps, which means we can challenge him a little more, not against players, but more with football stuff, those dynamic cuts and everything. Hopefully he has a really good week and we can talk about slowly introducing him to practice.”

With Hufanga not part of the starting safeties, sophomore Ji'Ayir Brown and special teams ace George Odum were the 49ers' backups throughout training camp.

Meanwhile, the head coach announced that offensive lineman Aaron Banks broke his pinky finger and underwent surgery Friday morning. The hope is that the left guard will be ready to play for the season opener.

In the upcoming game, most of the regular players are expected to be seen on the field in their uniforms for at least part of the game.

“I want to get some of them playing,” Shanahan said. “I don't want to say all of them, but I'd like to get a lot of them on the field at least for a while. I wanted to get those workouts done before we can evaluate that. We haven't said it to every player specifically, but the plan is you guys are going to see some of them.”