Already-thin 49ers see two more starters injured

ATLANTA — The San Francisco 49ers‘ rash of injuries did not clear up Sunday. In fact, it got worse.

Two more key Niners players — offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey and cornerback Charvarius Ward — departed Sunday’s 28-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons with calf and groin injuries, respectively. Both injuries happened in the first half, and the Niners ruled out a potential return for the duo early in the third quarter.

After the game, Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said Ward needs further evaluation to determine the severity of the injury, though he cautioned that Ward not returning Sunday might portend some missed time.

“We’re not sure yet,” Shanahan said. “I hope not, but he couldn’t go, which is usually not a good sign. We’ll see how it is tomorrow.”

Shanahan added a similar situation is in the offing for McGlinchey, who will also need further tests to figure out if he will miss any time.

McGlinchey suffered his injury while blocking downfield on a short pass to fullback Kyle Juszczyk in the second quarter. McGlinchey’s left calf appeared to get clipped by a player running past him as he attempted to clear room for Juszczyk to run.

McGlinchey attempted to return for the team’s final series of the second quarter, but Daniel Brunskill replaced him at right tackle at the start of the third.

It was unclear when Ward suffered his injury, though he departed in the second quarter as well, with rookie Samuel Womack III stepping in for him.

Ward and McGlinchey are the latest in an ever-growing list of injuries to 49ers starters. Defensive end Nick Bosa (groin), tackle Trent Williams (ankle), defensive tackle Arik Armstead (foot, ankle) and free safety Jimmie Ward (broken left hand) were among the starters on the team’s pregame inactive list.

That group doesn’t even include the starters on injured reserve, a list that includes quarterback Trey Lance (ankle), linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair (knee), running back Elijah Mitchell (knee), defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw (knee) and cornerback Emmanuel Moseley (knee).

Those injuries have already taken a toll on the 3-3 Niners, who have declined to use it as an excuse but also acknowledge how difficult it is to overcome.

“We have a standard that we play at,” tight end George Kittle said. “We play at a very high level, a lot of energy, 100% effort on every single play, and I haven’t watched the tape, but I don’t know if we gave that today at every single position. We had a lot of young guys play. We’re missing a lot of guys and we’ve got to make sure that we’re playing at that level every single snap; otherwise, that’s going to happen, especially when you are down guys.”

If there was any good injury news to be found Sunday, it was in the fact that some important reinforcements could be on the way back.

Shanahan indicated that Bosa and Williams, two of the team’s best players, could be back for next week’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs.