SAN JOSE >> An already banged-up Sharks defense corps might now have to deal with the absence of Shakir Mukhamadullin, who was still being evaluated Wednesday after he sustained an upper-body injury early in the third period of the team’s game against the Anaheim Ducks the night before.

Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky did not offer any details on Mukhamadullin’s injury and did not say whether the rookie defenseman would have to miss tonight’s game against the Edmonton Oilers at SAP Center.

“We’re not sure yet,” Warsofsky said of Mukhamadullin’s availability. “He’s still seeing our doctors.”

After he hit Ducks Troy Terry in the neutral zone, a play that knocked down the Ducks forward, Mukhamadullin was grabbed by Anaheim winger Frank Vatrano, who dropped his stick and threw his gloves down, grabbed the Sharks blueliner and dragged him to the ice.

Mukhamadullin, not expecting Vatrano to come after him, tried to brace his fall by putting his left arm down before the Ducks forward moved over top of him. Mukhamadullin landed awkwardly, and Vatrano skated away as Mukhamadullin sat up and winced in pain as he reached for his upper body. Mukhamadullin was then assisted to the Sharks’ dressing room by a team trainer.

Mukhamadullin, who did not return to the game, received a cross-checking penalty, and Vatrano received a minor for roughing.

Warsofsky said the collision between Mukhamadullin and Terry didn’t warrant that kind of response from Vatrano.

“I thought (Mukhamadullin) kind of ran into (Terry). It’s probably a marginal call at best,” Warsofsky said of the penalty.

The Sharks, in turn, did not immediately pursue Vatrano, something that, in hindsight, Warsofsky would have liked to have seen from his team.

“We don’t like what Vatrano does, probably wish we would have handled it a little bit differently,” he said. “But it’s something that, as a young group, we’re learning.”

A more physical response, perhaps?

“You look back and you probably say yes,” Warsofsky said. “But in the moment, we’re down a goal or two goals, we’re trying to come back and win the hockey game. We have some young players that are just trying to find their way in this league, and that takes a lot of feel.

“I think early in the year, we’ve done a really good job of sticking up for teammates. Our team has changed quite heavily here, and we have to develop that again and start to have a feel for that and learn that process that takes place. And we will, the young players will, and I think we’ll learn from that and go forward,”

The Sharks trailed by two goals at the time of the injury, but responded on offense as Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Alexander Wennberg scored goals later in the third period to tie the game. Forward Mason McTavish, though, scored the only goal in the shootout as the Ducks handed the Sharks a 4-3 loss.

The Sharks have recently experienced a rash of injuries to their defense corps.

Henry Thrun (upper body) has missed 13 of the last 14 games, and Vincent Desharnais (upper body) has missed three straight games. Jimmy Schuldt did not make the trip with the Sharks to Southern California after being hurt in the third period of San Jose’s 6-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday.

Jan Rutta (lower body) has not played since January. He, Thrun, and Desharnais are all skating, but it is unclear when any of them might be able to return. Thrun is the closest to playing again, Warsofsky said, but he’ll be a game-time decision to play against the Oilers.

Mukhamadullin, 23, had been playing a bigger role with the Sharks recently, as Warsofsky moved him to the top pair with Ferraro after Jake Walman was traded to the Oilers on March 5.