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49ers’ extensive recovery process for players might finally be paying dividends

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Punter Bradly Pinion strode around the locker room Friday with a string of large, circular welts running down his back. It looked like he’d contracted a horrendous disease.

Actually Pinion had just undergone a “cupping” technique to help him recover from the rigors of the season. It was all part of player recover day, to get the 49ers feeling fresh as the season gets into its final stages.

The 49ers have two player recovery days, (usually Tuesdays and Fridays) where a fleet of acupuncturists, massage therapists, and active release specialists flood the team facility to treat sore muscles and aching bones. That’s why it’s curious that a team that devotes so much to player recovery has sustained so many injuries.

The 49ers once led the league with players on injured reserve with 19. No player sustained a serious injury in Chicago last Sunday, and coach Kyle Shanahan said it was the healthiest his team had been after any game this year.

For the Texans’ game, there’s only one player listed as “questionable” and that’s right tackle Trenton Brown with a shoulder ailment. Shanahan anticipates that Brown will be a game-time decision, just like he was last week. Brown was able to play against the Bears.

Maybe the player recovery days are finally paying dividends. The work on Pinion uses a series of suction cups to sooth muscles, which is taken from an Asian discipline.

A yoga class is conducted on Tuesday, where the emphasis is on stretching.

The healers come to the team’s facility and their work is all paid for by the team. Wide receiver Marquise Goodwin said the Bills did the same thing when he was in Buffalo last year, but not as extensively as the 49ers.

“The level that they do it here, you got way more people who can get treated,” Goodwin said.

Fullback Kyle Juszczyk said that players are always seeking outside help in the recovery process, but with the 49ers, all the research is done for them.

“When I was in Baltimore, you had to pay for that all on your own, and you had masseuses come to your house,” Juszczyk said. “(At the 49ers) this is all year, scheduled, you don’t have to pay for it.”

Treatments throughout the season might have a cumulative affect, and maybe that’s a reason the team is finally staying healthy. Center Daniel Kilgore said that the impact of taking hits on the field for weeks in a row definitely makes him sore and any relief he can get is welcome.

When asked by Tolbert and Lund how he felt on Thursday afternoon’s show, Kilgore said, “Man, I feel awful. It’s that time of the year when things hurt a little bit more and it’s a little bit harder to get up in the morning, but overall, coach Shanahan has done a great job letting us take care of our bodies.”