San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has not been able to coach the team during training camp after sustaining serious injuries in an offseason car crash, but he has made it clear that he will soon be back in action.
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Shanahan said that he is near full strength as he makes progress. He continues to deal with headaches and fatigue after the July 14 accident in which he sustained three broken ribs, a broken hand, and a concussion among other injuries. He still wears a cast on his left hand.
His plan is to coach the 49ers as the team kicks off the preseason with a game against the Titans. This game will happen on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET.
"As far as the important stuff, I feel it's about 100%," Shanahan said while making his first public comments about the crash.
"The biggest thing I have learned with this stuff is just when you deal with fatigue and headaches and stuff is if I kind of do everything, I kind of pay for it in some ways later. That's like the routine that I found out. I really tried to eliminate stuff that I would say is just the fake work stuff."
But while he has improved overall, he has avoided some of the more intensive parts of the job. He said that this includes the hours of film study and the meetings with the players and coaches.
Shanahan has not gone to the facility every single day while holding a more limited role, but he will once he makes a full recovery from his injuries and the headaches fully fade.
Shanahan also provided more details about the cause of the accident in Palo Alto, California. He said that he had his Tesla on autopilot when his phone fell down.
He said that he did not know if he had accidentally disabled the autopilot feature when turning around to reach for his phone or if it had malfunctioned. Either way, he knows that he made a mistake.
"Anytime you cause an accident that can be avoided, you feel pretty stupid, especially when you have a chance to hurt someone else," Shanahan said.
"Who knows what happened when I turned around, whether (autopilot) malfunctioned or whether I knocked it off I don't know yet. But regardless, it's always your fault. Whether you're on autopilot or not, you can't take your eyes off the road. It's a partnership, driving, you don't just turn it over to a computer."
