When it comes to his surgically repaired left knee, 49ers linebacker NaVorro Bowman’s daily routine is drastically different from last season. More than two years removed from the injury, Bowman says he doesn’t think about his knee ‘at all.’

“I feel great. Adding on days on top of days,” Bowman said. “I feel it sometimes, but it’s nowhere near what I went through last year with the constant attention I had to put on it. This year, I’m able to wake up and ride. That’s definitely a better thing that it was last year.”

Last year, Bowman spent hours each day preparing his knee for the rigors of practice with various stretches and strengthening exercises just to feel good enough to play. His torn ACL and MCL prevented him from playing at all in 2014.

Now, Bowman lets the team’s training staff work with other players dealing with their ailments while he focuses on learning new coordinator Jim O’Neil’s defense.

“The road is continuing to get better for me. I always knew it would,” he said. “I just had to stay on top of it and be disciplined and continue to work through the things that the doctors told me would come up.”

Despite the knee being in daily pain in 2015, Bowman led the NFL with 154 combined tackles and earned first-team All-Pro recognition for the fourth-straight season he’s been in the starting lineup. He was one of the league’s best linebackers against the run.

But unlike before the injury, Bowman struggled in coverage against the pass last season. His year was low-lighted by a last-minute loss to the New York Giants, when he was in coverage on two of Eli Manning’s touchdown passes, including a 12-yard strike to tight end Larry Donnell with 0:21 left that gave New York the 30-27 win.

When he was last healthy before the injury, Bowman was one of the league’s most athletic at the position. His 89-yard interception return for a touchdown against the Falcons in Dec. 2013, when he peeled back into coverage after starting the play at the line of scrimmage to make a play on the ball, was exhibit A.

“There were some plays out there that I left out there (in 2015),” Bowman said. “All things considered, I did my best. I’m still chasing to have a better year than I did last year.”