Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale expects to be ready for Opening Day after being struck in the left hip by a line drive during Saturday's spring training game against the Houston Astros.

Sale exited the game in the first inning after Houston's J.D. Davis drilled a line drive off the All-Star left-hander. Sale immediately fell to the ground and appeared to clutch his left knee.

Chris Sale left Saturday's game after getting hit by a line drive that struck a nerve in his hip and temporarily sent numbness down his entire leg. Steve Mitchell/USA TODAY Sports

After being examined by Red Sox medical personnel, Sale limped back to the locker room. The team initially announced Sale had suffered a left hip contusion and would undergo further testing.

X-rays were negative.

Sale later told reporters that he doesn't have a knee injury, saying the line drive struck a nerve in his hip and temporarily sent numbness down his entire leg.

"It looked a lot worse than it actually is," said Sale, who stressed he will be ready for Boston's regular-season opener Thursday against the Tampa Bay Rays.

"[The line drive] kind of shocked me more than anything," Sale said. "That initial blow sent some shooting [down my leg]. Now everything has quieted down."

Sale was planning to go six innings, with 80 to 90 pitches on Saturday.

"We're going to figure something out over tomorrow and the next day," he said. "Try to build up arm strength to get to where we need to be for Thursday."

The lanky left-hander considered himself fortunate.

"That's another reason we're thankful it hit me where it did," Sale said. "I don't have a whole lot of padding anywhere on me, but if I'm going to get hit, somewhere in the hip or the butt's going to be the place to go. Better than a rib, arm, hand, even the face. So this was best-case scenario."

Sale, the AL All-Star Game starting pitcher, was 17-8 with a 2.90 ERA and a major league-leading 308 strikeouts in 2017. He has had a solid spring training, striking out 18 batters in 14 innings and giving up five runs, prior to Saturday's game.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.