What a bummer for San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jacob Cowing.
On Wednesday, head coach Kyle Shanahan shared glum news on Cowing. He revealed that Cowing pulled his hamstring during Day 1 of training camp.
"I thought Jac (Jacob) had one of the best OTAs out of anybody on our team in terms of the most improved, the most prepared for it," Shanahan said at his press conference.
"Unfortunately, I think he pulled his hamstring running routes on air today before we started. I say to just keep on his trajectory. Hopefully, he can stay healthy and keep going where he did in OTAs, but he probably had a little setback today. Hopefully, it's better news than what we're guessing out there."
Unfortunate is the perfect word to use. Cowing had a lot of momentum going into training camp. The fact that Shanahan is highlighting him so much indicates that.
With Ricky Pearsall and Brandon Aiyuk out, Cowing was going to receive a lot of opportunities. This was his chance to seize it and become a key player in the 49ers' offense.
Now, he joins Pearsall with a hamstring injury. It's unclear how severe the injury is, but pulling a hamstring is never a light concern. It's usually a moderate one given how precarious they are.
Just look at Pearsall's situation. The 49ers thought he would be good for the start of training camp, but it turns out he still needs more time.
For Cowing, he enters a worrisome situation just like with Pearsall because he too suffered a hamstring injury in last year's training camp. It kept him out of the majority of it.
Like Shanahan said, hopefully it isn't one that derails him and he can recover quickly.