San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Kendrick Bourne opened up about the devastating injury to star linebacker Fred Warner during an appearance on Richard Sherman's podcast. Warner suffered a dislocated and fractured right ankle in Sunday's loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, ending his season.

Warner finished the game with one tackle, bringing his career total to 948—just three shy of surpassing Patrick Willis' franchise record of 950. He had missed only one game over his eight NFL seasons.


Bourne admitted that watching one of the NFL's best defensive players go down was difficult, given Warner's impact on the team.

"The injury itself is tough," Bourne told Sherman, noting that sometimes you don't know how serious an injury is until it's reported later. But as soon as Warner went down, he knew it probably wasn't something the four-time All-Pro could bounce back from.

"But to see how gruesome it was—it hurt," Bourne said. "And to see who it was, him playing consecutive games, about to break the record, all those things, was like, 'Oh my goodness, out of anybody...'"

Warner surprised his teammates by speaking to them after the game, despite the severity of his injury.

"It was crazy. He came out of nowhere, stood in front of the training room, and it was like, man, being hurt, his aura was still there," Bourne recalled. "'Oh, shoot,' you know what I'm saying? When somebody's different, you know. And so he walked out on the crutches, and the room was just silent. But that's the power he holds, and the weight he carries."


So, what message did Warner share with the 49ers after losing their second game of the season and the heart and soul of their defense?

"He just told us not to worry about him," Bourne said. "And the way he works on the field, you know he's going to attack the rehab. But it took the life out of us in that game. It was a tough time. I loved the way we still battled, but it's just a lot of adversity we're facing, and it's going to show who we are, who our backups are."

Warner is the latest of many 49ers stars to suffer injuries this season. The defense is also without defensive end Nick Bosa (ACL) for the remainder of the year.

Bourne added that Warner's words emphasized opportunity and resilience.

"Now, it's [opportunities] for other people," Bourne continued. "... So, whoever is behind Fred, whoever is behind whoever gets down, who are you? Are you going to step into your time? And we want to focus on that because it's hard to keep mourning. Because it's Fred Warner, we can mourn for the rest of the year.


"And that's what he said out of his mouth when he talked to us after the game. He was like, 'Hey, don't worry about me.' And it helps us, and me, to even talk like this, because it came from his mouth, and you know it's real."



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