Surgeon says 49ers’ Trey Lance could be fully healed before end of regular season. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance (5) is carted off during an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday that he would “assume” quarterback Trey Lance would be ready to play in the 2023 season opener after undergoing surgery to repair his broken ankle.
And that’s an extremely safe assumption.
Dr. Kenneth Jung, a foot and ankle surgeon who is a consultant to the Los Angeles Rams, said Lance’s injury, as it was described by the team in a statement Monday, could be fully healed in 10 to 12 weeks.
That is, Lance, who has been ruled out for the rest of the season, could be back to full strength with several weeks left in the regular season. Jung noted he doesn’t have the full details of Lance’s injury and that it’s understandable the 49ers would exercise caution with Lance, 22, the No. 3 pick in 2021.
“There could be a lot of non-medical factors that are playing a part in shutting him down — protecting their investment in the future,” said Jung, who works at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles. “But usually this injury is about 10 to 12 weeks.”
Lance suffered a broken fibula and what the team termed “ligament disruption” in the first quarter of a 27-7 win over Seattle on Sunday. The ligament damage, Jung said, probably was caused by a dislocation, with bones shifting out of joint. The torn ligaments are likely in the syndesmosis, the complex of ligaments involved in high ankle sprains.
Jung said Lance’s fibula probably was stabilized with a plate and screws. That hardware likely will remain during Lance’s career, as it involves another operation to remove, and the bone can be weaker without it.
Jung expects the dual-threat QB to have the same mobility when he returns to the field.
Jung said, “I think if things go according to plan as far as his rehab, and the injury is as they have described, you would expect him to make a full recovery.”
Lance’s injury is less severe than the broken ankle suffered by Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott on Oct. 11, 2020. Prescott, who had a compound fracture, initially had a recovery timeline of four to six months. Prescott required a second surgery about two months after his initial procedure. Despite requiring multiple surgeries, however, Prescott was still medically cleared before the start of training camp in 2021, about eight months after he was hurt.
Jung said Lance’s broken ankle is a fairly typical football injury.
“In the foot and ankle world of the NFL, or the collegiate level, it’s unfortunately pretty common,” Jung said.
Eric Branch covers the 49ers for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: ebranch@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Eric_Branch
Eric Branch has covered the 49ers at the San Francisco Chronicle since 2011, when he arrived after covering the team in 2010 at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. A graduate of UCLA, he's won nine national APSE awards in various divisions, including recognition in 2018 for a breaking-news story on the arrest of 49ers linebacker Reuben Foster. He was included in the "Best American Sports Writing 2001," under notable writing of that year, for a column on the ups and down of being a small-town sportswriter when he was at the Alexandria (La.) Town Talk. Before covering the 49ers, he covered endless events, from archery tournaments to lawnmower races, while also working at the Logansport (Ind.) Pharos-Tribune, York (Pa.) Daily Record and San Luis Obispo Tribune.