On Saturday evening, Christian McCaffrey and the San Francisco 49ers punched their ticket to the NFC Championship Game with a narrow home win over the Green Bay Packers. McCaffrey scored a touchdown that ultimately ended up being the game-winner in the final minutes, and the 49ers are now preparing to take on the Detroit Lions this coming Sunday with a chance to participate in February 11’s Super Bowl on the line.

One player who the 49ers are desperately hoping is able to give it a go against the Lions is star offensive Swiss army knife Deebo Samuel, who was injured during the first half of the Packers game and was unable to return.

However, San Francisco got a bit of good news on Thursday when Samuel was a limited participant in that day’s session with the shoulder injury, per Nick Wagoner of ESPN.

Now, McCaffrey himself is speaking out about the added spark that the 49ers get when Samuel is out there on the field.

“It’s awesome,” said McCaffrey, per Cam Inman of  The Mercury News. “Anytime he’s out there, he brings an extra set of juice that’s hard to mimic without him.”

The 49ers will certainly need all of the help that they can get against a revamped Lions squad that has taken the NFC and NFL as a whole by storm during the 2023-24 season. While San Francisco is still expected by most to come through and win, it doesn’t appear that they are taking the matchup with Detroit lightly.