Gordon Hayward: Rehab process ‘most difficult thing I’ve done’ (2024)

Last season, Gordon Hayward suffered one of the worst injuries seen in the NBA in the Boston Celtics season opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

He went up for a lob pass from former Cav Kyrie Irving and, in attempting to catch the pass between LeBron James and former Celtics forward Jae Crowder, fell awkwardly on his left leg. He crumpled, instantly, his left ankle turned nearly 90 degrees in the wrong direction.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Hayward would describe the challenges he faced rehabbing his broken ankle. According to Hayward, the most difficult part of the rehab process was mental, not physical.

“The hardest part of the whole process has been the mental challenge…I think you find the fight within yourself.”

Hayward would elaborate:

“There’s so many days where I wake up and it’s like ‘Man, here we go again’…It was the most difficult thing I’ve done.”

In January, Hayward cited the slow progress and the frustrations stemming from it as what was the hardest to deal with on his personal website.

The hardest part of all of this is the mental grind. It’s a lot of time doing pretty boring things to get the slightest bit better every day, and of course, sometimes I don’t get better. Sometimes I take a small step back because my ankle didn’t react well to the thing that I did the day before. And so we have to walk it back a little. That’s the hardest part, and the most frustrating part for sure. But you have to keep pushing.

It’s not unusual or even unexpected, so it’s unlikely that Hayward was surprised about the pace of his rehab. Nonetheless, it was the first major injury of Hayward’s career and it took him away from what many call a game but is his life’s work.

Hayward, who is now completely healthy, guarantees he’ll be ready for the season opener.