SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Entering an important matchup with the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers will be without starting quarterback Brock Purdy and defensive end Nick Bosa.
The Niners officially ruled out Purdy (right shoulder soreness) and Bosa (left hip/oblique) Friday afternoon, just before the team was scheduled to fly to Wisconsin. Coach Kyle Shanahan announced that veteran Brandon Allen will start in place of Purdy, with Josh Dobbs available as the backup.
With Purdy and Bosa out and left tackle Trent Williams (ankle) again listed as questionable, the 5-5 Niners could be without three of their most important players in a game they desperately need to stay in the postseason hunt.
«We're missing two good players, definitely,» Shanahan said. «But we've got a lot of good players out there. By no means do we not have a chance to win. We're going to fight our tails off and expect this to be a real good game.»
While Bosa missing a game to recover has been a real possibility for the past two weeks, Purdy's absence grew into one over the past 24 hours. Purdy was a limited participant in Wednesday's practice, but Shanahan and the Niners believed his sore shoulder would continue to get better as the week went on.
Then Purdy was on the field for some light throwing before Thursday's practice, but that clearly didn't go well as he retreated to the weight room for further treatment. That apparent setback surprised the 49ers.
The writing was on the wall earlier Friday when Purdy was nowhere to be found during the portion of practice open to media.
«This is something that we didn't think would happen early in the week,» Shanahan said. «We were fully preparing for Brock to go and got a little surprised about this
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