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Football

San Francisco 49ers' Deebo Samuel injured vs. Green Bay Packers: What is the injury? Will he miss NFC Championship match?

Philip Marsh
San Francisco 49ers' Deebo Samuel injured vs. Green Bay Packers: What is the injury? Will he miss NFC Championship match?49ers.com

The San Francisco 49ers booked their place in the NFC Championship game for the fourth time in five seasons with victory over the Green Bay Packers on Saturday evening.

It was far from plain sailing for the NFC's number one seed, as they were forced to come from behind in the fourth quarter to snatch victory away from the Packers.

The 49ers were not helped by the early injury suffered by star wide receiver Deebo Samuel.

After being evaluted for a head injury after San Francisco's opening drive, Samuel returned to the field only to suffer another injury on the second drive.

This time it was a shoulder injury, one severe enough to rule Samuel out of the remainder of the Divisional Round win.

Asked after the game what the severity of the injury was, head coach Kyle Shanahan said: "I don't know yet, we will see tomorrow."

Worryingly for 49ers fans, Shanahan compared the shoulder injury to the one suffered by Samuel against the Cleveland Browns earlier in the season.

That injury ruled Samuel out for two weeks, during which time the 49ers lost both games. 

If Samuel is to be sidelined for two weeks he would miss the 49ers' NFC Championship match against the Detroit Lions or Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but could return for the Super Bowl should San Francisco get there.

Speaking to NBC after the match, Shanahan added: “It’s always a huge challenge when you lose one of your best players, but Deebo is a little more unique just because of the way we do use him.

“There’s not many more people who can do that stuff. When he is a big part of the game plan, which he always is, and he goes out that early, you’ve got to move a lot of people around, do a number of different things.

"I thought we handled it better today than we did against Cleveland, but we still need to do it better than we did.”

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