Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum suffered a devastating Achilles injury during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks. TD Garden has been wanting to know about Tatum's recovery and for the first time in a while, the forward has given an insight into his rehabilitation.
The Celtics star revealed his ongoing recovery in a TikTok video posted by the NBA. Tatum described the process as “tedious,” with grueling six-day-a-week sessions. He also revealed a significant milestone: he’s finally out of his walking boot and feeling optimistic.
“Rehab, it’s tedious, man," Tatum said. "It’s six days a week. It’s starting to get a little better month by month now. Better days ahead, but just trying to take it one day at a time. You’ve got to be resilient. That first six weeks of this was probably the toughest six weeks of any point in my life. I just had to accept it and realize it happened, and now I’ve got to do everything in my power to get back to who I was and get back to the plan.”
This offseason, Tatum has updated about her recovery in bits and pieces. One such update came along on Day 45 of his recovery (June 27), when he called the process "some bulls**t."
Jayson Tatum's possible return timeline
The Celtics would like their superstar to return as early as possible. His father, Justin Tatum, expects his son to return in 8-9 months, which means he could return by next February. Meanwhile, Celtics team president Rich Gotham has maintained there is no return timeline put in place for the Celtics star.
“What I know about JT is that he’s gonna do everything he can to put us in the position to make a decision,” Gotham said. “He’s gonna work hard to get back as soon as he can, and we’ll see how soon that is. But for right now, we’re not really looking at timetables.”
After Tatum’s injury, the Celtics fell to the Knicks. With him expected to miss most of next season, the team has already begun a roster shake-up, with All-Stars and key members of the 2023-24 championship squad, such as Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis, no longer on the roster.