The San Francisco 49ers’ injury curse has gone global, striking down prized rookie De’Zhaun Stribling in a non-contact horror show halfway across the world in Melbourne. As if playing in Australia wasn’t bizarre enough, the team’s nightmare season took another gruesome turn when the second-round wide receiver’s left leg betrayed him on the lush turf of the Melbourne Cricket Ground. One minute he was a cutting, dynamic weapon; the next, he was crumpled on the ground, clutching his calf in agony before being carted to the locker room, unable to bear weight.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan delivered the only sliver of good news in a post-game press conference dripping with dread: the Achilles tendon is intact. But that’s where the positivity ends. The severity of the injury remains a mystery, with tests ongoing, and the 49ers’ wide receiver corps now looks like a MAS*H unit. With Brandon Aiyuk gone, Ricky Pearsall out for the season, and Christian Kirk on injured reserve, Stribling was supposed to be the fresh-faced savior. Now, he’s just another name on a casualty list so long it’s starting to feel supernatural.

And the conspiracy theories are back, baby! The infamous ‘substation curse’—the running gag that electrical substations near 49ers games are somehow hexing the players—has followed the team over 7,800 miles across the Pacific. Eerie coincidences note that the MCG is flanked by the Jolimont Yard and Richmond substations, mirroring the setup at cursed Levi’s Stadium. While scientifically debunked, you can’t blame the Faithful for wondering if there’s a dark cloud, or perhaps a rogue electromagnetic field, permanently affixed to this franchise.

The injury bug didn’t stop with Stribling. Tight end Jake Tonges also went down with a leg injury moments later, completing a devastating one-two punch that left the Niners’ sidelines looking more like a triage center. Despite the returns of superstars like Fred Warner and George Kittle, the team simply cannot stay healthy. It’s a tragicomic saga where momentum is constantly sabotaged by the sickening pop of a knee or the awkward twist of an ankle.

For Brock Purdy, it’s yet another obstacle in a season defined by them. He was already spreading the ball to seven different targets, but now his arsenal has been critically depleted. The 49ers’ season, once bursting with Super Bowl aspirations, is now a desperate week-to-week battle against their own bodies. And as the substation truthers will tell you, the real enemy might not be the Rams or the Seahawks, but the invisible currents running beneath the stadiums themselves.