Gordon Hayward ended up as something of a forgotten man in Boston this season. Before Kyrie Irving forced his way out of Cleveland, Hayward’s free agency decision to join the Celtics was arguably the story of the offseason. But Irving’s arrival combined with a devastating opening-night injury pushed him to the background.
Then there was the stunning ascent of Boston’s talented young trio of Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Terry Rozier, who helped catapult the Celtics to within one game of the NBA Finals this spring.
When you consider that they’ll get both Irving and Hayward back in the lineup next season (barring any unexpected offseason finagling from Danny Ainge), the Celtics are among the most loaded teams in the league. And it’s looking more and more like Hayward’s recovery is progressing well after his most recent surgery.
Hayward wrote an essay on his website titled “Won’t Be Long Now” that provides fans with, as the title indicates, a very positive update regarding the health of his ankle.
“We got on a conference call with Dr. Porter, and the doctors and staff in Boston, and collectively decided that we should take the hardware out of my ankle,” Hayward wrote.
“The next night I was in surgery. Dr. Porter went in and took out everything that they had put in my ankle. There were two incisions made to take all the stuff out. They took the plate, the screws and the tightrope that was in there. So now, I basically have a normal ankle — just there are some holes in the bone where they had to put the screws in, and those are going to heal up.”
When healthy, Hayward is among the most gifted players at his position in the NBA, but catastrophic injuries like this can obviously sometimes permanently alter the trajectory of a career. Thankfully, the Celtics are so stacked that they have the luxury of bringing Hayward back slowly next season and can afford to be overly cautious with his ongoing recovery and return.
(h/t Fred Katz of MassLive.com)
