Nick Bosa shares harsh reality to injured second-year defensive tackle

With the blink of an eye, 49ers defensive tackle Alfred Collins’ second NFL season completely shifted its trajectory.

Instead of building off a rookie campaign in which he played in 16 games, he’s now going to spend his second year rehabbing a torn patellar.

It’s the first time in Collins’ football career that he will miss an entire season due to a knee injury, which can lead to him wondering what the rehab process will be like.

Teammate Nick Bosa, who has torn his ACL three times in his football career, spoke with the media in Australia ahead of the Niners’ Week 1 game against the Rams and gave him some honest advice.

“You can have guys tell you ‘keep your head up’ as much as you want, but they’re not gonna be there,” Bosa said. “When you go under and get your surgery done, or the nine to 10 months to a year where you’re grinding away from the team by yourself to get back.”

“It’s all great to have the support, but he has to do it for himself, and he just has to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

As Collins is set to enter a new journey rehabbing his knee from injury, Bosa is closing the chapter on his rehab recovery after tearing his ACL in his right knee in a Week 3 matchup against the Cardinals last season.

It was the second time he suffered a torn ACL injury on his right knee, as Bosa partially tore it during his senior year of high school.

Bosa went on to play at Ohio State after his senior year of high school and had a great college career, where he eventually became the No. 2 overall pick of the 2019 NFL Draft.

The 2022 NFL Defensive Player of the Year said Collins just needs to “take it one day at a time.”