Puka Nacua Clears Injury Report, Set to Start Rams' Opener Against 49ers
The Rams' star receiver dealt with a deep core muscle injury for nearly a month, but Sean McVay confirms he's fully cleared for Thursday's opener in Melbourne.
Puka Nacua will start for the Rams in Thursday's season opener against the 49ers in Melbourne, avoiding the injury report altogether after nearly a month of real uncertainty around a deep core muscle injury. The Rams' star receiver was slowed by a psoas issue — a muscle that connects the lower spine to the thigh bone and plays a real role in walking and bending — for much of the preseason, but head coach Sean McVay has now confirmed Nacua is at full speed heading into kickoff.
Useful next steps
The timing matters for a Rams team that arrives in Australia with real Super Bowl buzz already attached to its roster. Nacua enters the 2026 season ranked seventh on the NFL's own Top 100 Players list, a genuine reflection of how central he's become to Los Angeles' passing game since bursting into the league as a rookie. A lingering core injury is exactly the kind of thing that can quietly sap a receiver's explosiveness even when he's technically active, which is why the Rams' own decision to clear him without any game-status designation carries real weight rather than reading as a cautious game-time-decision label. Psoas injuries in particular are notoriously slow to fully heal because the muscle is engaged in nearly every cutting and change-of-direction movement a receiver makes, so a full, undesignated clearance genuinely means something different than simply being active.
He's full go. We feel great about where Puka's at heading into this game.— Sean McVay, on Nacua's Week 1 status
Our take: a receiver of Nacua's caliber missing real practice time to a core injury just weeks before the opener is the kind of story that would normally carry a lingering asterisk into Week 1, but the Rams clearing him with zero designation on the final injury report is about as clean a signal as a team gives this close to kickoff. It also means Los Angeles gets its full projected starting group — Nacua, a healthy receiving corps, and the rest of a roster that's been talked about as a real conference favorite — on the field together for the very first real test of the season, on the league's biggest international stage yet.
Nacua's path to a clean Week 1
Nacua picks up a deep core (psoas) muscle injury late in the preseason.
The injury limits his practice reps as the Rams manage his workload.
Nacua avoids the injury report entirely and is confirmed as a starter for Thursday.
It's a real change in tone from where things stood just a couple of weeks ago, when reports described Nacua as genuinely banged up and his availability for the opener as an open question. Going from a real practice-limiting injury to a clean bill of health with no designation at all, inside the same short window, reflects the kind of conservative-but-thorough ramp-up plan teams use for players they can't afford to rush back. For a Rams offense built around him as a focal point, having Nacua at full go rather than a limited, managed role changes what Los Angeles can actually call on early downs from the opening series. It also removes a real variable from McVay's own game-plan, since a genuinely limited Nacua would have forced the staff to lean more heavily on its other receivers and running backs to carry an offense that's built its whole identity around his ability to win after the catch.
A real injury scare resolves cleanly, and one of the league's best young receivers gets a full green light for the season opener.
Week 1 Prediction: Score, Spread & Player Prop
Rams -3.5 over the 49ers, per DraftKings' Week 1 line.
48.5 total points, one of the higher Week 1 numbers on the board given both rosters' firepower.
Puka Nacua Over 6.5 receptions (-115 range at most books), a fair number for a fully cleared, featured Rams target.
Odds referenced from DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM lines as of this week; lines move, always confirm current odds before betting.
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Sources: RotoBaller, Yahoo Sports