Lynch: Foster ‘healing very well’ from rotator-cuff surgery

John Lynch didn’t work with a whole lot of doubt or trepidation.

The new general manager of the San Francisco 49ers sought as much information as possible before the team made Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster a first-round pick in the NFL Draft. Lynch understood that Foster’s surgically repaired shoulder was something that needed to be thoroughly researched, and the GM was satisfied it was.

‘I think Kyle’s comments were a little misconstrued and a little misrepresented’

That was why he wasn’t concerned about questions raised when new Niners coach Kyle Shanahan mentioned the worst-case scenario possibility of Foster needing another surgery.

“I think Kyle’s comments were a little misconstrued and a little misrepresented,” Lynch told Alex Marvez and Mark Dominik on the SiriusXM Blitz. “With Kyle kind of spoke to is, look, with any player who’s had surgery, there’s always a risk of having to go in there and do something else. Our doctors, I can tell you, and our medical team, and I applaud them for it, they never blinked. They never deviated from their initial stance. They went back and rechecked it over and over.

‘I can’t tell you what everybody else saw. What we saw was a guy who had rotator-cuff surgery’

“Believe me, in my first draft, I wasn’t going to just kind of listen to them one time. I kept going to back and saying, ‘Why are all these reports out there?’ And, ‘Look at them again.’ And they’d look at the pictures again and they came back with the same report over and over. So, I can’t tell you what everybody else saw. What we saw was a guy who had rotator-cuff surgery. It’s healing very well.”

Although he didn’t participate, Foster managed to make a favorable impression on Lynch and the rest of the 49ers’ hierarchy during the team’s recent rookie minicamp.

‘I think we all know, when you watch Reuben Foster, he’s one of these freakish athletes’

“I think we all know, when you watch Reuben Foster, he’s one of these freakish athletes,” Lynch said. “Those guys tend to heal a little faster. He’s ahead of schedule, so our biggest deal with Reuben’s going to be holding him back because (of) his persona. And that’s one thing that drew me to him. This guy loves football. He wants to be on the field right now.

“We had our rookie minicamp and he was trying to pull the okie-doke and run out there with the guys, and we’re just going to kind of have to keep the reigns on him. But come training camp, we anticipate him being full go. And I can’t wait to see it.”