TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers lost another key player when All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner left Sunday's loss at Tampa Bay with a season-ending ankle injury.
Warner dislocated and broke his right ankle when a couple players fell into him at the end of a first-quarter play. Coach Kyle Shanahan said Warner is going to have surgery.
It's another blow for a 49ers team that was already playing without fellow defensive star Nick Bosa and several offensive starters, including Brock Purdy and George Kittle.
“Fred's been the leader of this team for a long time,” said quarterback Mac Jones, who made his fourth start of the year in place of Purdy.
“Really all you can do is pray for him. I know we have his back,” Jones added. “I was disappointed that I didn't play better for him today.”
Shanahan said the 28-year-old Warner spoke to the team in the locker room after the 30-19 loss dropped the 49ers to 4-2, tied for first place in the NFC West.
“Any time you lose one of your best players, also a huge leader, obviously it's a huge blow,” Shanahan said. “I feel bad for Fred right now. He was in good spirits. He has a good foundation.”
The entire 49ers sideline came onto the field to see Warner before he left with an air cast on his ankle.
“Not only is he one of the best linebackers to ever play the game, he's the heart and soul of this team, not just the heart and soul of the defense,” left tackle Trent Williams said.
“It's one thing to see somebody go down and go to the blue tent. Nobody really knows what's going on," Williams added. "When you see a guy that's injured like that, it's really like a gut punch. It truly is hard to continue the intensity of playing game like that never happened.”
The 49ers entered the game without Purdy, Bosa, Kittle and receivers Ricky Pearsall and Brandon Aiyuk, among others.
Injured receiver Jauan Jennings returned to the lineup after missing an Oct. 2 win over the Los Angeles Rams. He had one reception for 7 yards despite playing with an injured ankle and what he described as five broken ribs.
“Bad ankle, some issues with his ribs. ... I was pumped that he was able to go today,” Shanahan said. “But no, he is struggling to go every week right now.”
Warner has been a first-team All-Pro three straight seasons and four of the last five, making the Pro Bowl in each of those four seasons. Warner's 947 career tackles are the second-most for the team to Patrick Willis' 950 as far as records go back to 2000.
Warner has missed only one game in his eight-year career, sitting out in 2021 with a hamstring injury. He played most of last season with a broken bone in his ankle and still earned All-Pro honors.
Warner signed a three-year extension worth $63 million in the offseason, keeping him under contract with the team through the 2029 season.
“It was sickening,” Bucs coach Todd Bowles said. “One of the best players in the league and a great guy. That breaks your heart. Hope he has a speedy recovery.”
Williams wasn't surprised that Warner was in good spirits and spoke to the team in the locker room after the game.
“Fred will never let you see him down,” Williams said. “Even in the midst of what he's going through, he wanted to address the team. He's just that type of guy. I just continue to pray for him to have a healthy and speedy recovery.”
AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi contributed to this report.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
San Francisco 49ers middle linebacker Fred Warner (54) is tended to after being injured during the first half of an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tampa, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
San Francisco 49ers middle linebacker Fred Warner, right, is carted off the field during the first half of an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tampa, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
1. A jury in Virginia awarded $10 million Thursday to a former teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student, siding with her claims in a lawsuit that an ex-administrator ignored repeated warnings that the child had a gun.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — The jury returned its decision against Ebony Parker, a former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News.
Abby Zwerner was shot in January 2023 as she sat at a reading table in her first-grade classroom. She had sought $40 million against Parker in the lawsuit.
Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, required six surgeries and does not have the full use of her left hand. A bullet narrowly missed her heart and remains in her chest.
Zwerner did not address reporters outside the courthouse after the decision was announced. One of her attorneys, Diane Toscano, said the verdict sends a message that what happened at the school "was wrong and is not going to be tolerated, that safety has to be the first concern at school. I think it’s a great message.”
Parker was the only defendant in the lawsuit. A judge previously dismissed the district’s superintendent and the school principal as defendants.
The shooting sent shock waves through this military shipbuilding community and the country at large, with many wondering how a child so young could gain access to a gun and shoot his teacher.
The lawsuit said Parker had a duty to protect Zwerner and others from harm after being told about the gun. Zwerner’s attorneys said Parker failed to act in the hours before the shooting after several school staff members told her that the student had a gun in his backpack.
“Who would think a 6-year-old would bring a gun to school and shoot their teacher?” Toscano told the jury earlier. “It’s Dr. Parker’s job to believe that that is possible. It’s her job to investigate it and get to the very bottom of it.”
Parker did not testify in the lawsuit. Her attorney, Daniel Hogan, had warned jurors about hindsight bias and “Monday morning quarterbacking” in the shooting.
““You will be able to judge for yourself whether or not this was foreseeable,” Hogan said. “That’s the heart of this case.
“The law knows that it is fundamentally unfair to judge another person’s decisions based on stuff that came up after the fact. The law requires you to examine people’s decisions at the time they make them.”
The shooting occurred on the first day after the student had returned from a suspension for slamming Zwerner’s phone two days earlier.
Zwerner testified she first heard about the gun prior to class recess from a reading specialist who had been tipped off by students. The shooting occurred a few hours later. Despite her injuries, Zwerner was able to hustle her students out of the classroom. She eventually passed out in the school office.
Zwerner testified she believed that she had died that day.
“I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven,” Zwerner said. “But then it all got black. And so, I then thought I wasn’t going there. And then my next memory is I see two co-workers around me and I process that I’m hurt and they’re putting pressure on where I’m hurt.”
Zwerner no longer works for the school district and has said she has no plans to teach again. She has since become a licensed cosmetologist.
Parker faces a separate criminal trial this month on eight counts of felony child neglect. Each of the counts is punishable by up to five years in prison in the event of a conviction.
The student’s mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges. Her son told authorities he got his mother’s handgun by climbing onto a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the firearm was in his mom’s purse.
—-
Raby reported from Cross Lanes, West Virginia.
Former Richneck Elementary School teacher Abby Zwerner looks back into the courtroom during her civil lawsuit trial, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport News, Va. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)
Newport News Circuit Court Judge Matthew Hoffman sidebars with attorneys during Former Richneck Elementary School teacher Abby Zwerner's civil lawsuit against the former assistant principal of the school where Zwerner was shot, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport News, Va. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)
Former Richneck Elementary School assistant principal Ebony Parker looks back into the courtroom during Abby Zwerner's lawsuit against her Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport News, Va. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)
Abby Zwerner's attorney Diane Toscano confers with her colleague Jeffrey Breit during Zwerner's lawsuit Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport News, Va. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)
