Gordon Hayward Is Finally Out Of His Walking Boot And There’s Video To Prove It


It’s been almost two months to the day since Gordon Hayward went down with one of the most gruesome injuries ever seen on an NBA floor in the Celtics opener in Cleveland. Hayward’s dislocated ankle and fractured tibia in the first five minutes of his Celtics career left his first season in Boston hanging in the balance, as no one knew just how long the rehab process would take.

That timetable remains up in the air, but Hayward has begun the slow process of getting back to full strength over the past two months following surgery, which has included shooting from a chair and a prolonged period of time in a walking boot. We got word recently that he was almost out of said boot, as Danny Ainge provided an update on his new star’s health a week ago, claiming he’d be a “couple weeks away” from taking it off permanently.

It appears as though Hayward is ahead of schedule, as he showed up to a recent Destiny 2 event at the Boys & Girls Club in Boston while walking normally and without the boot, rocking sneakers and looking fairly comfortable.

The “oohs” and “ahhs” from everyone in attendance and the cameras snapping to get pictures of a man walking normally is, out of context, fairly silly, but considering how awful his injury looked it seems like a near miracle that he’s walking without a boot or crutches two months later.

We don’t know what the next steps are for Hayward, and the Celtics still don’t want to put a timetable on a return for him. Hayward has said he hopes “more than anything” he’ll be able to return by the end of this season and help Boston in a postseason run, while understanding he can’t rush himself back to the floor. In any case, this video offers some optimism for the Celtics’ faithful and is a good sign that Hayward is progressing nicely in his rehab process, no matter when the end date will arrive.

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