Boston Celtics All-Star wing Gordon Hayward believes he is healing faster than initially anticipated from a hand injury sustained in early November.
The injury, a broken metatarsal sustained in a victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Nov. 9, was considered to require four to six weeks to heal after undergoing surgery three weeks ago.
The Butler product is pleased with the progress he’s experiencing in rehabilitating the broken bone, already finding himself capable of light dribbling and shooting, per MassLive’s Tom Westerholm.
“I feel like I’m ahead of schedule,” Hayward explained. “I mean, it’s hard to say with these things exactly what the timeline is. But, like I said, I feel good, and most importantly I’ve been able to continue with my leg work and stuff like that, so that’s really important.”
Celtics fans were delighted by a short clip showing the forward knocking down shots at the team’s practice facility earlier in the week, and Hayward seems in a similar humor about his seeming speedy recovery.
“I’m able to kind of lightly dribble right now and shoot. I’m trying to just build some strength back in the left hand a little bit … So, I mean, I think all this considered, I feel like I’m progressing really well, and we’ll see where it’s at.”
Even still, the ten-year veteran is hesitant to say when he feels like he might be ready to return to action. Understandable, given how anticipation for his return contributed to last season’s assortment of problems derailing a highly-anticipated campaign.
“It’s kind of hard to put an exact timetable on some of these things, because some of it is, once the bone has healed, how much pain can you handle and how does your hand respond to workouts or getting hit a little bit, different things like that,” Hayward offered. “So I think I’m doing really well so far, and hopefully that can continue.
With the Celtics having stuck with their winning ways for the most part over his absence over most of November and the team heading into a comparatively easy stretch of the schedule, there is little reason to rush the injured Hayward back.
But after missing nearly an entire season and recovering much of last year, it would be no surprise for the former Bulldog to also want to get back in the mix at his earliest possible opportunity.
