SANTA CLARA, Calif. — For the second week in a row, the San Francisco 49ers appeared to have suffered a significant injury to a key offensive player in the first half.
Wide receiver Deebo Samuel departed Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a left knee injury with about five minutes left in the second quarter. Samuel was officially ruled out by the team early in the third quarter.
On second-and-9 at Tampa’s 43, Samuel took a handoff from quarterback Brock Purdy and ran up the middle. As a pair of Buccaneers defenders converged on Samuel, he attempted to spin out and appeared to get his left knee twisted in an awkward direction. Samuel lost the ball (Tampa recovered the fumble) and stayed down for a few minutes in obvious pain.
Most of the 49ers’ roster quickly ran on the field to be close to Samuel while the medical staff checked on him as San Francisco fans chanted, “Dee-bo, Dee-bo.”
Samuel briefly stood up and appeared set to hobble to the sideline with some help from the medical staff, but then dropped back to the ground and yelled an expletive picked up by the officials’ microphone.
A cart came out soon after, taking a dejected Samuel to the locker room. Samuel had his hands on his left knee and his head down as the cart disappeared into the Niners’ tunnel.
Samuel’s injury comes a week after quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo suffered a broken left foot that is expected to keep him out for the rest of the season.
Samuel had four catches for 43 yards and four carries for 21 yards and a touchdown at the time of his injury.
San Francisco led 28-0 at the half.
Source: www.espn.com