We’ve heard from Brad Stevens that Gordon Hayward could be fully cleared to play basketball again in early-to-mid August, but in a new blog today, Hayward himself says he could be playing full court, five on five basketball by the end of July.
He detailed the problems with the hardware in his ankle, and figuring out it was time to take it out.
So I flew back to Indianapolis and did what is called a Cybex test. Essentially, they used it to test the strength in both my ankles. The first round that I did the test, my left ankle was significantly weaker than my right. It was approximately 70 percent of the strength of the right ankle. On a test like that, 30 percent is a pretty significant number, so that raised some red flags.
Then Dr. Porter injected my left ankle with some local anesthetic to numb the area, and I did the same test again. That time, not only was my left 100 percent of the strength of my right, it was actually slightly stronger. That let Dr. Porter know that it was not a strength issue, but a pain issue, and the pain was basically blocking my progression.
That revelation made it pretty clear that it was the hardware that was causing the issue. According to both doctors, it is something that is very rare. Usually, you don’t have to take out the hardware. I remember when I got the surgery done in the first place, they told me, “We are probably not going to have to take out the hardware, but you never know.”
So 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.
According to Hayward, he’ll be right back to where he had progressed pre-surgery except without the pain, which is great news.
He’s “thiiis” close to be back to himself. By the time training camp rolls around, their big free agent signing of last summer can get back on the court and back to the business of leading this team to a championship.
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