Tevin Coleman still has a chance of playing in the NFL Super Bowl despite dislocating his shoulder on Sunday.
This was the view of the San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan when he spoke to the media after the game.
The 26-year-old, 6ft, 205lb running back suffered the injury in the second quarter of Sunday’s NFC Championship final and was forced to sit out the rest of the game. Before his exit he had six carries for 21 yards.
Fortunately for San Francisco, fellow running back Raheem Mostert was in stunning form. He rushed 220 yards for four great touchdowns in leading San Francisco to its 37-20 defeat of the Packers.
The 49ers are now anxiously awaiting the results of an MRI scan. It should determine whether Coleman can play against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV on February 2. Shanahan is reasonably confident that he can
Shanahan won’t ‘speculate too much’ prior to MRI scan
“We’ve got to wait until we get the stuff (the MRI) back, so I don’t want to speculate too much, but it’s usually a week to rest it and get back in [after that],” the San Francisco coach told reporters.
“I expect him to have a chance to play. But you can’t hold me to that. We’ll find out more after the imaging, but I expect he’ll have a good chance to play.”
Asked to compare the injury to the shoulder dislocation Emmanuel Moseley suffered in 2018, Shanahan said: “I think he (Moseley) might have torn something, because he needed surgery.
“This was more like a Lethal Weapon-type thing; where we got to pop it back in.”
Coleman is a former state of Illinois track star with a best 100m time of 10.5 sec and long jump distance of 7.16 metres. He was also an All-American college Football star at Illinois and before he was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in 2015.
This is the second serious injury Coleman has suffered since signing a $10 million contract with the ‘Niners’ on March 14, last year.
Coleman out for 4 weeks after season-opener
During his season-opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Coleman rushed for 23 yards on six carries but suffered an ankle sprain that would keep him out for four weeks.
He came back strong from injury in Week 5 against the Cleveland Browns. He rushed 16 times for 97 yards and his first rushing touchdown of the season.
Three weeks later against the Carolina Panthers, Coleman finished with 105 rushing yards and four touchdowns as the 49ers won 51–13.
He was then just the second 49er to score four touchdowns in a game and the first since Hall-of-Famer Jerry Rice in 1993. After his four TD’s on Sunday, Mostert has now joined them.
Overall, Coleman finished the 2019 regular season with 544 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns to go along with 21 receptions for 180 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown.
In the Divisional Round of the playoffs against the Minnesota Vikings, Coleman rushed 22 times for 105 yards and 2 touchdowns in his team’s 27–10 win.
San Francisco lucky to still have Mostert, but…
San Francisco is fortunate to have another running back of the calibre of Mostert, nevertheless the pace and scoring-power of Coleman is an additional key factor that will clearly be missed if he’s not fit to play.
The fans, the punters and the bookmakers alike now await the results of his MRI scan with great interest.
Coleman’s NFL career stats as per NFL.co
Rushing yards: 2,884
Rushing average: 4.3
Rushing Touchdowns: 24
Receptions: 113
Receiving yards: 1.190
Receiving Touchdowns: 12