Doctor Offers Insight into 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan's Severe Concussion

This is scary.

IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Kyle Shanahan will return to his job as head coach of the 49ers when his concussion symptoms go away. And no one knows when they'll leave for good.

Eleven days ago, Kyle Shanahan suffered a "severe concussion," as well as a broken nose, a broken hand, three broken ribs and a laceration on his face that required 40 stitches. Brutal. But the only injury that's preventing him from coaching right now is the severe concussion.

I don't know what makes a concussion severe, so I called a doctor to ask. Here's why I learned.

According to the doctor, a severe concussion means that Shanahan most likely was unconscious for a period of time after the accident. That's scary.

In addition, if 100 patients have severe concussions, 10 percent of them would make full recoveries in a week, and another 10 percent wouldn't make full recoveries in a year. That's how wide the range of time is for Shanahan's recovery. He might be back in a few weeks, or he might have to miss the entire season, according to the doctor. Who knows?

While Shanahan is in recovery, he will most likely experience fatigue, memory loss, headaches, and a struggle to concentrate. He might feel good for a few days when he's resting, but when he tries to concentrate and do his job, the symptoms could come back.

The doctor says Shanahan should not drink alcohol while he's recovering from this severe concussion. Drinking alcohol actually would prolong his recovery. Plus, he might have to take some heavy-duty pain medication to treat the headaches, so he needs to follow his doctors' advice.

When Shanahan finally returns, the doctor says to pay attention to his speech patterns. Does he speak slower than usual, and does he use smaller words than he typically would? If so, he might not be ready to coach yet.

No one really knows when Shanahan will be ready to return. Not him. Not the 49ers. Not their doctors.

For the time being, they should be fine without him. Teams typically script their training-camp installations weeks before camp starts. Those should be done by now. Other than the daily 30-minute speech that he gives to the team, the 49ers should be able to get through training camp successfully.

What's more, this is the same team that cancelled minicamp last month. They think they don't need a ton of preparation. They have lots of veterans who are leaders and can run practices while Shanahan is out.

But when the season starts, there's only one person in the organization who can do what Shanahan does, and that's him. His absence would be more detrimental to the team than if Brock Purdy were to get injured, because the 49ers have a good backup quarterback.

Here's to a speedy recovery.