49ers quarterback Kurtis Rourke was taken to the hospital as a precaution after suffering a rib injury in Thursday night’s preseason opener.
Coach Kyle Shanahan indicated that Rourke’s injury is not believed to be serious, but any time a player struggles to breathe the medical staff wants to be cautious.
“They said ribs, he was struggling to breathe so they took him to the hospital just to check on him and make sure he’s alright. X-rays in here didn’t show it was broken,” Shanahan said. “They just wanted to get more imaging and find out, so they weren’t too concerned. I don’t want to downplay it but I don’t want to overplay it either.”
Rourke completed 12 of 14 passes for 101 yards before leaving the game.
“He looked good. Got the ball to the right spot, played well,” Shanahan said.
The only other quarterback in uniform for the 49ers on Thursday night was Adrian Martinez, who completed 16 of 30 passes for 159 yards after Rourke left. Shanahan said that if Martinez had been injured and the 49ers had been left without any quarterbacks, tight end Brayden Willis would have played quarterback the rest of the game and the 49ers would have only called handoffs.
