SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa took a big step toward returning to play Wednesday when he participated in a full practice for the first time since tearing his right anterior cruciate ligament in Week 3 of last season.
After the session, in which Bosa did individual drills and took part in team periods, he said he "felt great" and called his progress "very encouraging." Asked whether he intended to play in the Sept. 10 opener against the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia, Bosa didn't make any definitive declarations but did say "after today, yeah, that was pretty good."
Bosa's recovery from the knee injury hasn't been linear. He was far enough along in his rehab that he didn't need to start the preseason on the physically unable to perform list and was doing individual drills on the side during the opening days of training camp in July.
But Bosa had a setback that the team originally described as soreness and then later added that he was dealing with knee tendinitis. On Wednesday, Bosa offered a deeper look into the series of fits and starts he has dealt with in his comeback.
"It was a long road," Bosa said. "There's some stuff I dealt with, with that patella tendon, and then I kind of ramped it a little too fast with the football stuff a month ago or whatever it was. And that kind of told me to back off. I've just been trying to get it as strong and myself as confident as I can to where I could rip the Band-Aid off and go to team stuff today."