Gordon Hayward was something of an iron man, missing only 42 regular-season games during the first seven seasons of his career. Although, since then, beginning with his horrific leg injury on the opening night in 2017, he has been seemingly cursed by the injury gods.
He sat out of that first season with the Celtics, worked his way back through a dismal 2019-20 campaign, during which he struggled to find his old form. Then as soon as he did early last season, he was dealt multiple blows again. First, he broke his hand, and then later he suffered a badly sprained ankle in the playoffs.
Getting out of Boston has not helped him either. The Charlotte Hornets announced on Wednesday, that Hayward suffered a fractured finger. Their press release read:
“The Charlotte Hornets announced today Hornets forward Gordon Hayward sustained an avulsion fracture of his fifth metacarpal during the team’s preseason exhibition against the Toronto Raptors on Dec. 14. Hayward will miss Thursday’s preseason game at Orlando on Dec. 17 and will be listed as day-to-day moving forward.”
Fortunately, this particular incident does not seem to be serious, as he remains day-to-day. It is not clear when exactly he will be back, but if the team was expecting him to be sitting out for a long time they would have said so in their announcement.
Even if he does suit up shortly, this is not the way Hayward or the Hornets would have wished to start their partnership. They agreed to sign him to a huge four-year, $120 million contract in one of the most surprising moves of free agency.
