The 49ers' team doctors say Frank Gore can play in Thursday's exhibition finale in San Diego. The head coach, however, has other ideas. "He can probably play but I'm not going to play him," Mike Nolan said Monday. "As much as he carried the ball last year, I think he's got it down." Four weeks after a breaking a bone on the top of his right hand in practice, Gore was fitted Monday for protective padding designed to help absorb any impact to his right hand. Whether he wears it for the team's regular-season opener Sept. 10, Gore said, depends on how comfortable the device feels in practice.