Nick Bosa took a significant step toward playing in next week’s season opener in Melbourne, returning to practice Wednesday after missing four weeks with tendinitis in his surgically repaired right knee.
Practice day: confidence, but not a guarantee
Bosa said he expects to be ready for the game against the Los Angeles Rams, telling reporters, “After today, yeah.” He worked through individual drills in the open portion of practice and also participated in team sessions as the 49ers ramped his workload back up.
Theathleticuk reported that the team views Bosa as on track for Week 1 and that coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch indicated Bosa and George Kittle would practice this week. While Bosa expressed growing confidence — “We’re taking it one day at a time, but today was a great day,” he said — one outlet noted he stopped short of guaranteeing he will play.
What went wrong this summer and how he adjusted
Bosa explained that a patellar tendon issue, combined with pushing his football workload too quickly, forced him to back off roughly a month ago. Yahoo! News reported that the patellar tendon problem and an attempted acceleration of his football work contributed to the setback; Bosa acknowledged he “ramped it a little too fast,” which signaled the need to pull back before returning to team periods.
That conservative reset is consistent with Bosa’s recent approach: he has said publicly that he is “taking it slow,” and the 49ers cleared him to begin training camp rather than place him on the physically unable to perform list. The team eased him from individual work into team periods before soreness and tendinitis required a pause in his progression.
Background, timeline and stakes for Week 1
Bosa’s path back has been long: he returned to practice Wednesday for the first time in about a month as he recovers from a torn ACL suffered in September, which kept him out of all but three games of the 2025 season. It was his third ACL surgery and his second on his right knee, dating back to high school.
The 49ers’ plan after his summer flare-up was to reset his program and manage his activity more deliberately; team personnel described the revised plan as a path they believe will have him ready for Australia. Whether his knee responds the same way to the increased workload that follows remains the central uncertainty heading into the opener.
From a roster standpoint, the timing matters. Theathleticuk noted the club’s pass rush depth is under pressure: 2025 first-round pick Mykel Williams is expected to be out at least the first four games with a knee issue, and rookie Romello Height missed practice Wednesday with an ankle problem. That context is why the team has emphasized a methodical return for Bosa and why his availability for Week 1 would be meaningful.
Immediate outlook and unanswered questions
Wednesday represented a different threshold for Bosa — one in which he operated in team drills without consciously protecting the knee — but the next several practice days and the game-week workload will determine whether that progress holds. Theathleticuk described the team’s belief in the plan to have him ready for Australia; Yahoo! News highlighted both the patellar tendon complication and Bosa’s acknowledgment that he previously pushed himself too hard.
For now, Bosa’s voice is measured. He reflected on the stop-start nature of recovery — “You put in so much work, and you think you’re coming back ... and then you’re not ... and then you’re back” — and signaled a more cautious path forward. The 49ers and their staff will monitor how his knee tolerates fuller practices in the days ahead before finalizing any availability decision for the trip to Melbourne.
