EL SEGUNDO — At one point, the pain was so intense that Chargers outside linebacker Joey Bosa said he slept on an exercise ball he swiped from the training room at the team’s headquarters. He said he curled up in a fetal position for hours because that was the only way to ease the pain.

It had started with lower back pain that was manageable, but he said Friday he knew something was wrong the day after the Chargers’ victory over the Carolina Panthers on Sept. 15. He did his best to get through a week’s worth of practice while the team stayed in Charlotte, North Carolina.

But when he ran onto the field for the Chargers’ game against the Steelers in Pittsburgh the next Sunday, he knew he was pushing his luck. Usually, he said he would sprint onto the field from the locker room, trying to outrun his teammates for the pregame warmup. He could barely jog this time.

Bosa lasted one play before his left leg gave out and he had to leave the game for the sideline. The lower back pain shifted to his left buttock and, ultimately, caused irritation along the sciatic nerve that runs from the back/hip area down the side of each leg. In Bosa’s case, it was his left leg.

The pain was excruciating, unending, and he couldn’t perform rehabilitation exercises after the team’s return from Pittsburgh. He couldn’t sleep because the pain kept him up as he lay in bed. The only cure for his sleepless nights was to drape himself over that large exercise ball and hope for the sandman to come.

It’s been more than a month, but the healing process has finally taken hold and Bosa said Friday he will play in the Chargers’ game against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday at SoFi Stadium. How much he will play is still to be determined, but it is likely he will be on a limited snap count.

“I’m feeling good,” he said in his first public comments since he was injured in the game against Pittsburgh on Sept. 22. “It’s been a tough, tough five weeks now, but I’m starting to come around. I had three really good days in a row. I took it easy (Friday). It’s been a really interesting one.

“I’ve been telling you (reporters) how good I’ve been feeling and here I am missing all these weeks, but it’s finally coming around. I had two good practices. I think getting through this week, this game, I think it’s going to keep stacking (days) and I’m going to continue to improve and, hopefully, get back to the form I was in.

“I’m definitely going to be out there (Sunday).”

He credited his family, his teammates and coaches, the athletic training staff and his therapist for lifting his spirits and doing what they could to aid his recovery both physically and mentally. He revealed the strain of his injury was often difficult to bear emotionally, given his string of injuries in recent seasons.

Bosa played only nine games last season and five in the 2022 season.

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“I’m just grateful I have a great team around me,” he said. “I know for a fact that I would not be standing here or be as successful as I am without all these people around me. So, I just want to thank everybody, including my teammates, for having my back and not pushing me and just being there for me.

“Dealing with stuff like this makes you realize it can be over at any moment. I just don’t want to take anything for granted. I don’t want to look back and say, ‘shoulda, coulda, woulda.’ I think I have a few years, hopefully, a few good years left and I just want to take advantage of my opportunity.”

Bosa, 29, said he didn’t believe the end of his nine-year NFL career was at hand, but it wasn’t too difficult to imagine it coming to an end in the not-too distant future. After all, he was sidelined by a broken hand that required surgery during training camp as well as by foot and groin injuries that limited him to only a handful of games in recent seasons.

“Your mind tends to ruminate, go to the future, go to the past,” he said. “What if I did this? What if I did that? When you get into that state, it’s important to kind of reel it in and take it, maybe not a day at a time, but a minute at a time, an hour at a time. It’s pretty trendy to talk about being mindful and staying in the moment, but there’s a reason it’s popular because it’s important.”