Boston Celtics: Gordon Hayward Injury Discussion

NBA Opening Night has become of the best days of the year for me; behind the NFL draft and National Signing Day. But in the 5 minutes of the game it quickly turned gut-wrenching and sour bringing back memories of Paul George and Kevin Ware.

Newly acquired Celtic, Gordon Hayward, fractured his tibia and dislocated his left ankle when going up for an alley-oop bucket from Kyrie Irving. You can see in the replay that when he goes to land that his left foot has not come in contact with the floor and instead lands on his ankle causing the fracture and dislocation.

They set his ankle on the floor last night, if I recall. Surgically, there’s not a single thing for me to comment on because it’s out of my scope of practice and knowledge. He’ll get plates and screws to attach everything and allow the bone to heal.

He’s going to be in a boot for weeks, the time in the boot is dependent on how his leg heals. He’ll get x-rays to confirm everything has healed before he starts his physical therapy.

What could I do?
As soon as he starts physical therapy, I can begin to work on the muscles of the foot, ankle, lower leg, and knee. Since there can be a fair amount of scar tissue development from the time he injured his ankle, to the surgery, and being in the boot, we’ll want to work out the soft tissue as quickly as possible and effectively as possible. I believe the manual therapy component is a vital component to any rehabilitation process. It can help with restoring range of motion in all the joints that I mentioned above. And from a rehabilitation perspective, with athletes who aren’t at the professional level, just making sure that their exercises are progressing properly and in a manner that prepares them first for being to return to their activities of daily living to general physical preparation then to athletic preparation and sport-endeavors.

Update: There was a report by NBC Sports that with his injury, that he could be back by March. He had a clean break with no ligament damage.