49ers star Nick Bosa plans to play Week 1 game vs. Rams

SANTA CLARA — Nick Bosa does not plan on taking a transpacific flight to be a spectator.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s one practice,” Bosa told NBC Sports Bay Area on Wednesday before the 49ers were scheduled to fly to Melbourne, Australia. “But, yeah, I’m flying out there, I’m going to (expletive) play.”

Bosa returned to practice on Wednesday and took part in 11-on-11 drills for the first time since he sustained a torn right ACL in Week 3 of last season.

The 49ers were scheduled to depart the Bay Area late Wednesday night and land in Melbourne, Australia, approximately 15 hours later.

The 49ers open the regular season on Thursday, Aug. 10, Pacific Time, against the Los Angeles Rams in a crucial early-season matchup.

Bosa is a huge key for a 49ers’ defense that ranked last in the NFL last season with just 20 sacks in 17 games.

Bosa was cleared for football activity at the beginning of training camp. He experienced a setback in early August, as he admittedly pushed his return to football drills a little too hard.

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“It was a long road,” Bosa said. “There was some stuff I dealt with, with that patellar tendon, and 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 been trying to get it as strong, and myself as confident as I can, to where I can rip the Band-Aid off and go do team stuff today.”

Bosa said getting back into 11-on-11 drills was a huge step for him as his sights shift to the regular-season opener.

Bosa said he feels good about his conditioning. He has been running twice a day to build up to a point where he believes he can remain strong through the course of a game.

“I've gotten a good amount of cardio work and I feel explosive,” he said. “But once I throw pads on, that's another aspect of it that I'll get this week. But I think the wind comes pretty quick for me. Once I get out there, once I get through the first drive, it just gets fun.”

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