Chargers’ Joey Bosa had surgery, will wear club on hand

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Los Angeles Chargers outside linebacker Joey Bosa told reporters Thursday that he suffered a broken hand during a joint practice with the Los Angeles Rams on Aug. 4 and required surgery.

Bosa returned Tuesday for his first practice since the injury, wearing a black club around his left hand. A club is a protective covering that gives players stability and protection to play while injured. It is often made with cast material tape and padding.

The injury won’t force Bosa to miss any of the Chargers’ games, he said, but he will wear the club during games for a portion of the season.

“It sucks. I mean, the first second you get injured, you have a million thoughts go through your head and most of them are negative,” Bosa said. “I was feeling really good about the place I was heading to, and I still do. I went through the woes for a couple days and, you know, got good news and, you know, moved on.”

Bosa said he was worried about losing strength while recovering from the surgery but said he has had “three really good practices” this week that prove that he still has power. Bosa did admit that his conditioning “needs work.”

The medical club will be a short-term addition to Bosa’s game-day attire, he said, but he declined to give a timetable on when he would play without it. He said he would feel comfortable playing without the club right now but is wearing it as a precautionary measure.

“There’s no reason to rush and cause any problems,” Bosa said, looking at his swollen left hand. “Not that there really could be, other than some pain of a bunch of hardware in there, keeping my bones together, so it’s not really a risk of much of an injury.

“Once I have complete range and grip strength, which I pretty much already do, I’ll be out of it.”

Injuries have plagued Bosa the past two seasons of his career. When Bosa entered the league in 2016, he established himself as one of the league’s best edge rushers, making four Pro Bowls in his first six seasons. The Chargers rewarded Bosa by making him the league’s highest-paid defensive player in 2020 with a five-year, $135 million contract extension in 2020.

However, injuries have kept Bosa from living up to what the Chargers paid him. He made the Pro Bowl in 2021 but has played just 14 games over the past two seasons, missing time with hamstring, foot and toe injuries. For that reason, Bosa was a candidate to be traded or released ahead of this season because of his massive contract. Instead, Bosa took a pay cut in March, restructuring the deal to stay with the team.

Bosa has an $8 million guaranteed base salary this season and no guaranteed money in 2025, potentially making this his final campaign in Los Angeles.

Said Bosa: “I’m feeling confident about having to perform, especially with another full week.”