AP

The injury to 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo appears to be the worst-case scenario.

San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan confirmed after today’s loss to the Chiefs that the team fears Garoppolo tore his ACL. That would be a season-ending injury to the quarterback the 49ers traded a second-round draft pick to acquire and gave one of the biggest contracts in NFL history.

Although an ACL tear can only be diagnosed definitively with an MRI, experienced athletic trainers can usually tell an ACL is torn by feeling the looseness of the knee. It would be rare for the 49ers’ medical staff to fear a torn ACL and be proven wrong, but the 49ers will cross their fingers.

It’s been a rough start to the season for the 1-2 49ers, and the worst may be yet to come, when those MRI results come back.