Gordon Hayward set to return from mysterious foot injury but uncertainty remains

Gordon Hayward is expected to return against the Raptors on Wednesday in a Christmas Day matinee, but any concerns about his sore left foot are not going away. The swingman spoke for the first time after practice Tuesday since sitting out three straight games with what is being termed a nerve issue that has bothered him for several weeks.

“The foot feels a lot better today than it has been,” Hayward said. “I think we’ve been trying to figure out kind of the cause of the issue. There’s been a lot of nerve pain, it’s something I’ve been dealing with for a while. And then it got kind of to the point where I couldn’t play over the break which was the weirdest thing because we weren’t doing anything. But it certainly feels a lot better now. I had an injection so I hit the right spot on that hopefully and we’ll see how it feels tomorrow.”

Hayward first started feeling soreness in the foot during the Celtics’ win over the Cavs in Cleveland on Nov. 5 after scoring a season-high 39 points on 17/20 FG. Hayward played two more games with the soreness before suffering his broken hand in San Antonio on Nov. 9.

“It’s been a long time and something I’d been playing through,” Hayward explained. “I could figure out a way to play through it, but it was progressively getting worse when I wouldn’t play, so we tried to figure out solutions. For whatever reason, we tried a solution that made it worse, and that’s why I couldn’t play.”

Those potential solutions were cortisone shots that didn’t do the job at first. Hayward’s MRIs have come back with no structural issues so the challenge for Boston’s medical staff is finding the source of the pain and a solution for it. After two cortisone shots earlier seemed to make the injury worse, a third one on Monday in a new location may have done the trick according to the 30-year-old.

“Structurally my foot is fine,” Hayward said. “We did all the imaging we needed to do and did it a second time as well. So I hope this cortisone injection works. That’s typically, I’ve been told, what you can do for nerve pain is inject it with cortisone. We tried that two other times, just I think we need to hit the right spot. It feels a lot better today. Hopefully that’s a sign that we did get it right this time.”

While there doesn’t appear to be a direct connection with Hayward’s ankle injury from two years ago, the swingman believes that the two issues are likely related in some capacity.

“I think it has everything to do with my prior injury,” Hayward said. “I didn't get hurt on my right foot, so when you have a traumatic event like that to your foot and ankle, things are going to change inside of there that you don't know necessarily. I think they start to poke their head a little bit if it gets tweaked in some way or another. I don't think it's a coincidence it's on my left foot.”

Those lingering thoughts combined with the uncertain root of the pain has caused plenty of frustration for Hayward, who has been limited to only 11 games this season.

“I was super frustrated,” he admitted. “I broke my hand and this was a different issue than when I wasn’t playing, you would think I could figure it out. My hand was broke. The fact that (the foot) was getting worse was frustrating everybody. We were calling around the country trying to figure it out. Hopefully we did.”

Hayward is officially listed as probable for Wednesday’s game but a decision won’t be made on his status until the morning.

“Tomorrow’s (game) depends on how I feel tomorrow morning,” Hayward said. “I got an injection and I feel really good today and hopefully good tomorrow.”

BSJ Analysis

It’s hard not to look at this situation with a bit of fear from the Celtics standpoint, given how crucial a weapon Hayward is to this group. The ailment has lasted for over six weeks now dating back and with no clear cut solution in place, the team is going to have to tread carefully. The fact that there was no real improvement during his four weeks of downtime after breaking his hand is particularly troublesome.

“That was kind of what we were trying to work through, something where it’s like, if it gets worse, is playing on it going to make it worse?” Hayward admitted. “And that’s why it was weird: Because I didn’t play on it but it got worse. And we had all that time off. I was playing through it for the longest time, then I broke my hand.”

The test comes now clearly with the hope of a potential solution by a third cortisone shot in a new spot of the foot. For what it’s worth, Brad Stevens seems less worked up about any kind of connection between the two injuries, but it’s understandably natural for Hayward to have concerns.

“If he’s available, then he’ll start and play,” Stevens said. “We’ll be alert to his minutes, like we were on the first game back. I don’t think, again, we’re not worried about it being a muscular thing or a structural thing, it’s nothing tied to the old injury, like (he) just has a little bit of pain that now, five days later, feels better.”

Just how much attention will be paid to the injury in the coming weeks will be noteworthy. The biggest stretch of the season is coming up for Boston in January with back-to-backs on nearly every week. The team will need to proceed cautiously to protect one of their stars and ensure he’s at his best when the team needs him the most in April and May and hopefully June. Long-term durability will also have to be a concern for the franchise more so than ever now with Hayward if/when the 6-foot-8 forward negotiates his next contract if this issue lingers.

For now, it appears progress has been made and the Celtics will be happy to have him back on the floor. He played remarkably well throughout this season even after experiencing the initial pain back in November. However, this is clearly an issue that the C’s would love to go away in the new year but Hayward’s tone does not appear optimistic on that front.

Other Practice Notes

—Marcus Smart did a little bit of work but he has been ruled out for Christmas Day as he continues to recover from an eye infection: “Smart did some stuff yesterday, came in and worked out with our coaches and then today did all of our pre-practice stuff and then a little bit on the court,” Stevens said. “We weren’t on the court very long obviously. He won’t play tomorrow, but this is good trying to get him back at it. Our goal is that he would play sometime before the end of the year. Hopefully get in enough workouts and practices that he can do that.”

—Tremont Waters will be in uniform for the Celtics on Christmas Day while Tacko Fall is inactive for matchup reasons with Toronto: “They’re super small and fast, like super fast. They press, they zone, they mix up defenses and try to keep you off balance, so that would be a game where we would need more ball-handlers and more skill.”