Kyle Shanahan: Dre Greenlaw is getting close to return

The 49ers have dealt with so many injuries during the season that it's been easy to forget that they've also been without one key player since February.

Kyle Shanahan: Dre Greenlaw is getting close to return

The 49ers have dealt with so many injuries during the season that it's been easy to forget that they've also been without one key player since February.

Linebacker Dre Greenlaw tore his Achilles during the Super Bowl and head coach Kyle Shanahan gave an update on his extended recovery during an appearance on KNBR on Tuesday. Shanahan didn't have an exact date for when Greenlaw will be able to get back on the field, but he made it sound like it won't be too much longer.

"I think Dre is getting close," Shanahan said, via 49ersWebzone.com. "I don't want to put a timetable on it. I'd probably be surprised [if it was] right after the bye week, but I do think after that, it'll be close to being week-to-week, which means, if everything goes right, that'll be a sooner week than later week for whatever diagnosis that is."

Getting Greenlaw back won't be exactly the same thing as making a trade deadline addition because he won't have the same need to acclimate himself to a new situation, but it could have the same kind of impact on the 49ers in the second half of the season.