49ers, Saints cancel joint workouts amid SF injuries

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — With injuries mounting, the San Francisco 49ers have made a major adjustment to their preseason schedule, announcing Sunday that they have canceled planned joint workouts with the New Orleans Saints.

“The 49ers and Saints have agreed to cancel joint workouts scheduled for Thursday, August 15 and Friday, August 16 in Irvine,” the Niners said in a statement.

The joint sessions were scheduled to take place in Irvine, California, where the Saints were training, before the two teams play a preseason game next Sunday at the Niners’ Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

A source told ESPN that the decision was due to the numerous injuries suffered by the 49ers during training camp. A variety of soft tissue ailments kept several players out of practice for more than a week.

When the Niners practiced on Thursday, 23 players were sidelined for various reasons. The team was hit with injuries again in the preseason opener against the Tennessee Titans on Saturday night, with quarterback Ambry Thomas suffering a fracture in his right hand that is expected to keep him out for an extended period.

Linebacker Christian McCaffrey (calf), quarterback Fred Warner (foot), guard Spencer Burford (hand) and wide receiver Ricky Pearsall (shoulder) are among the San Francisco 49ers key players who have missed recent practice. That doesn’t account for the absence of cornerback Trent Williams and wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who have been holding out and holding out, respectively, amid contract disputes.

The cancellation of the practice is a disappointing development for 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, who has traditionally viewed the practice as a better gauge of his team’s performance than preseason games.

“It’s great to get a chance to compete against other players,” Shanahan told reporters Saturday in Nashville. “We’re a little tired. So, we’ve got to figure out how to do that and stuff like that.”

The answer is they can’t. The Niners have had to do everything they can to get enough players to make the practice as productive as they expected. Instead of traveling to Irvine, the Niners plan to practice at home in Santa Clara on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week ahead of Sunday’s friendly against New Orleans.

Saints coach Denis Allen said it was disappointing that the team had to cancel joint sessions, but he was not concerned about it. He said his team would look at the possibility of scheduling training against another team, but he did not expect that idea to happen.

“I think we probably take some of the planned work against the 49ers and the skeleton of that and use it to work against ourselves,” Allen said.

ESPN’s Catherine Terrell contributed to this report.