NaVorro Bowman is healthy, but his pride is wounded.

The 49ers’ inside linebacker has scars on his left knee, which was shredded in 2014, and his left Achilles tendon, which was torn in October. But he also acknowledged there are invisible wounds.

During a recent hourlong interview, the typically tight-lipped Bowman tackled difficult topics, such as feeling disrespected and unappreciated, as if they were running backs at the goal line.

“To not be mentioned as one of the best since I entered the league makes me feel a certain way sometimes,” Bowman said. “… For the respect not to be presented and given, it just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Carolina’s Luke Kuechly, 26, is widely viewed as the NFL’s best inside linebacker. And now, with 49ers rookie Reuben Foster resembling a young Bowman this summer, there is talk that Bowman, 29, might not be the best inside linebacker even on his own team.

As with many accomplished athletes, Bowman, a third-round pick from Penn State in 2010, has long been fueled by slights, real or imagined. And those feelings have only intensified as he has dealt with two major injuries and the speculation that they’ve stolen his explosiveness.

“They always want fresh and new. They had a group of linebackers come out” in the recent draft, Bowman said. “Even Reuben, being on our team. It’s still like, ‘He’s this. He’s that. NaVorro Bowman should be traded.’ Why should I be traded? I’ve done my job every year that I’ve been able to do my job.”

As the 49ers launch their rebuild under a new regime, Bowman, a first-team All-Pro in each of his four full seasons as a starter, is out to prove he’s still capable of playing at that level.

He’ll attempt to do so after an offseason in which the slights just kept on coming: As he rehabbed from his torn Achilles, he dealt with a trade rumor and talk that he had to compete for the starting spot he has held since 2011.

In May, NFL Network unveiled its annual Top 100 Players list. Kuechly was No. 20, Seattle inside linebacker Bobby Wagner was No. 39, Carolina’s Thomas Davis was No. 89 and Bowman was … missing.

Last year, when he was ranked No. 61 after leading the NFL in tackles in 2015, Bowman termed NFL Network’s list “totally bogus” and questioned the validity of their players-only-vote process. So how does he feel now that he’s not on the list?

“It’s still a joke,” Bowman said. “I’m getting paid like a top-100 player. What more do you want? They’re not giving away money. I’ve earned every single thing I have.”

Despite his longtime status as an elite player, Bowman identifies as a third-round pick who has not fully silenced skeptics. In his first three seasons as a starter, he played alongside Patrick Willis, but thought others wondered whether he could lead a defense in a starring role. In 2015, without Willis and facing doubts about his ability to recover from the gruesome knee injury that sidelined him the previous season, he was a first-team All-Pro and led the NFL with 154 tackles.

Now, 11 months removed from his torn Achilles, he wonders why he’s still questioned instead of celebrated.

In his four full seasons as a starter, he has placed himself in select company: Bowman, Willis, Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott are the only players in franchise history to have at least four first-team All-Pro nods. Bowman notes he’s done so while playing for five defensive coordinators.

“I’m still where I am, with or without Pat,” Bowman said, referring to Willis. “With or without the same coach. Five different (coordinators). Five different schemes. I feel like Floyd Mayweather. Seriously. No matter who you put up. No matter what coach you bring in here. No matter what scheme you bring in here. You’re still going to know who No. 53 is.”

Bowman references Mayweather, the 50-0 boxer, because he says opponents have never slowed him.

“A healthy Bowman is still the best linebacker in the NFL,” he said. “What else has stopped me? A knee and an Achilles. What else? What else can you say about me?”

Both general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan said they wondered whether Bowman’s second major injury to his left leg would prevent him from recapturing his All-Pro form.

In the offseason, the 49ers gave Raiders inside linebacker Malcolm Smith a contract that included $11.5 million guaranteed, then drafted Foster with the 31st overall pick. The message was clear: Bowman would have to compete to stay a starter.

In May, after former NFL executive Michael Lombardi reported the 49ers “definitely” were shopping Bowman, Lynch and Shanahan issued a joint statement terming the report “completely false.”

Shanahan reached out to Bowman, but Bowman didn’t pick up what he viewed as a “sympathy phone call.” He later sat down with Lynch, but wasn’t convinced the 49ers hadn’t considered unloading him and a contract that will count $9.6 million against this season’s salary cap.

“When it came up, those were the exact words: ‘They don’t know me,’” Bowman said. “They see I make a lot of money, and (am) coming off an injury — let’s, I guess, get it out there. It would have been their loss. When guys come in here, or guys play against me, they know what they’re facing. Guys coming in here know who they want to be like. They want to pick my brain. There’s a reason for all that.

The people in the front office “don’t sweat. (They) don’t know what I bring to this team — those are the type of things that happen. You might lose a good player, or make the wrong decision. Good thing they didn’t.”

Bowman was angry earlier in the offseason, but during the interview, he spoke matter-of-factly. He didn’t raise his voice and didn’t come off as disgruntled. He didn’t curse, although he smiled when noting his biggest cheerleader could make some of his points more colorfully: “You could talk to my wife and she’ll probably give you the more rated-R version.”

Bowman wants to finish his career with the 49ers and has the “utmost respect” for CEO Jed York and his family. Bowman wants to play at least 10 seasons and, assuming he meets that goal, says he probably would retire rather than play for another franchise.

“I’ve been with this team for a long time,” Bowman said. “Seen the good and the bad. And that’s what I want my NFL career to be. ‘How was it playing with the 49ers?’ Not the 49ers, the Cardinals, the Saints — I don’t want to go through that.”

Another reason he’s not looking to leave: His relationship with Shanahan and Lynch has grown over the past few months. Bowman thinks his rapid rehab and strong offseason practices have altered their outlook. Despite the declarations of a competition, Bowman’s starting spot was not threatened. The 49ers were poised to let Foster learn behind Bowman and Smith this season before Smith suffered a season-ending injury in training camp.

Bowman’s assessment: Now they know who he is.

“When they came in, I think they were so focused on making the right business move and that (trade) conversation probably did come up,” Bowman said. “And the wrong ear heard it. But it didn’t make sense. And that’s why I’m still here. I just, honestly, think that’s how it went. But now they’re on my side. Kyle’s on my side: ‘Oh, he’s moving around fine. Glad we didn’t trade him.’”

For his part, Lynch expected Bowman’s progress to be far slower. Early in the offseason, Lynch sat in his second-floor office overlooking the practice field and was surprised to see Bowman sprinting. Lynch quickly called head trainer Jeff Ferguson, who assured him Bowman wasn’t going rogue in his rehab.

“You wonder, ‘OK, at his age, after these kind of injuries, what kind of player is he going to be?’” Lynch said. “And then you couple that with a new (defensive) scheme that he’s never played in, ‘OK, how is this going to translate?’ But we just took it step by step. Kyle always says I see better than I hear, so let’s go watch it. And he’s kind of checked every box along the way. And we’re excited for him to go into the season and be the NaVorro Bowman he has been for years.”

Bowman said he’ll likely retire if he suffers another significant injury. He and his wife, Mikale, have three young children, and he says they are all eager for him to stop playing.

However, he attacked his latest rehab with a hunger that impressed Shanahan, who also was struck that Bowman did not request an insecurity-inspired meeting to discuss his role after Smith and Foster were added.

“A lot of times, guys, if they’ve had a lot of success, they lose their edge and don’t (rehab) like they’re going to be cut,” Shanahan said. “They usually don’t come back the right way. That’s what was so cool about Bo. That he was training like a guy who is always trying to prove that he should make it. … Bo hasn’t told me anything. I’ve just watched how he worked in the offseason, and he showed me that he still has something to prove and he’s going for it.”

Before last season, the 49ers gave Bowman, who had three years left on his contract, a four-year, $44 million extension that could keep him with the team through the 2022 season, when he’s 34.

But neither Lynch nor Shanahan has insisted Bowman is part of the long-term plan while the roster has been overhauled.

Bowman’s biggest salary-cap hit — $11.99 million — will come next season. It’s quite possible Bowman’s performance this season will determine whether he’s deemed worth his price tag.

“That’s the cool thing about being a new regime: You get to come in and everyone has a clean slate. That goes for Bo,” Lynch said. “Yeah, we have expectations, and we have to be prudent in all these things. But what we’ve told these guys is just go play and these things kind of take care of themselves.”

It was perhaps telling that Bowman, unlike Foster, didn’t play every snap in the first half of the 49ers’ third preseason game in Minnesota. He was taken off the field in favor of a sixth defensive back when the 49ers used their dime package, although defensive coordinator Robert Saleh insisted it wasn’t a reflection of Bowman’s once-unquestioned coverage ability.

If the package continues in the regular season, it will mark the first time that Bowman hasn’t been an every-down player since his rookie season in 2010, when he backed up Takeo Spikes.

When asked about his rookie season, Bowman told a revealing, money-related story.

Despite earning a relatively modest $320,000 base salary, he made an extravagant purchase: He spent $170,000 on a four-door black Porsche Panamera, which inspired teammates to shake their heads at the 22-year-old who seemed determined to go broke.

Bowman had never owned a car and admits that partly fueled his purchase. But there was more to it.

“That Porsche was more of putting pressure on myself at the time,” Bowman said. “To have to pay for it. To live up to a person that’s driving a nice car. I don’t want to be driving a nice car and not doing my job. Not being successful. That was all me putting pressure on myself.”

He no longer can put pressure on himself with a purchase that will require a payment plan. In 2013, for example, he bought a Rolls-Royce and paid the $300,000 up front.

But he can finally speak out, at length, about feeling disrespected and unappreciated. At 29, is he really the NFL’s best inside linebacker after two major injuries to the same leg? He knows many aren’t buying it, but he notes he had no problem paying for that Porsche.

“No, I didn’t,” Bowman said, smiling. “I think that’s what great players do — they always respond to the challenge.”

Eric Branch is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ebranch@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Eric_Branch

NaVorro

Bowman

Position: Linebacker

Height, weight: 6-1, 230

Born: March 28, 1988 (age 29) in District Heights, Md.

College:

Penn State

Honors:

3 times Pro Bowl, 4 times All-Pro

Draft: By 49ers in the third round (91st overall) in 2010