(SP) – Boston Celtics forward Gordon Hayward may miss the rest of the season after breaking his tibia and dislocating his ankle early in Boston’s season debut, but sources say Hayward is in high spirits after learning about all of the social media shares his gruesome injury received.
“We all visited Gordon at the hospital last night and he was in a lot of pain,” said Celtics head coach Brad Stevens. “But then we let him know that he was a trending topic on Twitter and that his foot turned an unnatural way had been used in a lot of fire memes. That immediately put a smile on his face.”
Celtics players and coaches say there were encouraged by how calm Hayward was right after sustaining the injury.
“I talked to him as they were wheeling him off,” said Kyrie Irving. “He said he was worried that his career was over, but was excited to think that he’ll be forever listed in those Most Gruesome Sports Injuries slideshow on sports blogs. He’s just an upbeat guy.”
Outside of the excitement of going viral thanks to part of his body almost snapping entirely off, Hayward is said to be doing his best to keep his spirits up.
“He’s going to make $30 million this year, regardless of if he takes the court again or not,” said a friend. “Whereas when I broke my leg when I was a kid, my mom bought me RoboCop on DVD. So I feel like he’s in a pretty good place, injury or not.”
