It sounds as if Anthony Davis had a change of heart about playing right guard.

What happened? Well, it’s possible his heart wasn’t totally into changing positions, despite his public comments suggesting otherwise.

On Sunday, Davis returned to practice after a one-day absence and was no longer the starter at right guard, NinersNation.com reported. Instead, he’d returned to being solely a backup at tackle, his position during his first five seasons in the NFL.

Davis, who left the NFL for the 2015 season, missed practice Saturday because he was mulling retirement, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The Chronicle learned he later met with team officials and those conversations swayed him to remain with the 49ers.

Those talks, presumably, centered around his job description and came two days before Davis was set to see plenty of All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald in tonight’s season opener against the Rams. Before this summer, Davis hadn’t played guard since his freshman season at Rutgers in 2007. He played 21 snaps at guard in the preseason, all in a loss to the Packers on Aug. 26.

In August, Davis said he broached the topic of switching positions. On Thursday, on KNBR, head coach Chip Kelly said Davis was asked to move.

Here’s the timeline of Davis’ switch:

Aug. 15

A day after the preseason opener, Kelly was asked if there had been any talk of moving Davis to guard, given how well starting right tackle Trent Brown was playing.

“We haven’t had any discussions about that right now,” Kelly said. “A.D.’s just getting solid at the tackle spot. And, again, we just played our first preseason game, so we’ve got a lot of ways to go.”

Aug. 18

Davis took nine snaps at right guard in a joint practice with the Broncos.

“A few weeks ago I told coach that if it would help us, I’d be willing to play there,” Davis said after that practice. “He came up to me and asked me how I felt about taking some reps. I was excited about it.”

Davis was asked when a coach told him he’d be taking practice snaps at guard. “He came up to me and told me,” he responded.

So you don’t want to say when it happened? “I don’t want to contradict …” Davis said, not finishing the thought.

Davis was later asked about making such a significant position switch: “I’m an athlete. I can play right tackle. I can play anywhere on the line. Like I was saying, we want the best five on the field, and Trent is not going to play guard. He’s a giant man and I knew I could adapt to guard. I feel like that would help us.”

Aug. 26

In his lone preseason game at right guard, Davis played 20 snaps against Green Bay. He allowed one quarterback hurry in a 14 pass-blocking snaps and earned a -0.8 overall grade from Pro Football Focus.

Sept. 8

On KNBR, Kelly said Davis was asked to move from right tackle to right guard.

“He’s been totally immersed in what we’re doing,” Kelly said. “I think it speaks a lot to his character just how selfless he is. Trent Brown had played real well for us at right tackle, which is Anthony’s original position.

“We talked to him about trying to get our five best guys on the field and obviously A.D.’s in our top five. If we could move you to guard? He was all for it. ‘Whatever you need.’ He’s all about the team. He’s been really good in there. It’s given me the ability to sleep a little bit better knowing we have A.D. and Trent brown on the right side of our line.”

Twitter: @Eric_Branch