Mykel Williams’ Knee Injury Puts the 49ers’ Comeback Plan Under Pressure

The San Francisco 49ers’ Week 6 win over the Washington Commanders became more than a football game. It became the latest chapter in the complicated return of Mykel Williams from a major knee injury. Williams seemed fine after the game, but head coach Kyle Shanahan later announced that Williams had a knee injury and was listed among the players who would not participate in Wednesday’s practice. When Shanahan was asked if Williams’ surgically repaired knee “flared up” during Monday night’s win, he said, “Just knee.”

The brief answer did not resolve much. It acknowledged an injury, but it offered little reassurance. For a player who tore his ACL on Nov. 2 last year, missed all of training camp and the first four games this season, and then spent two weeks on the Physically Unable to Perform list before returning, ...