The San Francisco 49ers have been consistent in repeating the message that Christian McCaffrey's most likely return date is after their Week 9 bye.

Any hopes that the reigning Offensive Player of the Year's timeline would accelerate have not been realized, and head coach Kyle Shanahan confirmed in his Wednesday press conference that the 49ers would not open the running back's practice window this week ahead of Sunday's matchup with the Dallas Cowboys.

But McCaffrey does appear to be on schedule as he looks to finally put the Achilles tendinitis that has kept him off the field behind him.

Indicating when the window will likely be opened, Shanahan said: "It's not this week, so hopefully, it will be next week [during the bye]."

The absence of McCaffrey was glaring in last week's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs as the 49ers struggled to beat Kansas City's man coverage, a task that surely would have been easier with McCaffrey available to provide a substantial pass-catching threat out of the backfield. 

San Francisco won't have its dynamic dual-threat running back in Week 8, but it appears the 49ers won't have to wait too much longer to have him back on the field to provide support to an offense that has struggled to score in the red zone without him.

The task for the Niners in the meantime is to ensure McCaffrey returns to the field for a 4-4 team by continuing their recent dominance over the Cowboys.

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He has a chance to make a rapid recovery.