Jayson Tatum's injury revealed as ruptured Achilles. Celtics star now recovering from surgery.
Jayson Tatum has undergone successful surgery to repair a ruptured right Achilles tendon, the Boston Celtics announced Tuesday. The Celtics expect Tatum to make a full recovery, but provided no timetable for his return.
The 27-year-old will miss the rest of Boston's playoff run this summer and potentially the entire 2025-26 season. There's a chance he could return late next season if he makes a quick recovery, but the Celtics will be without their superstar player for the foreseeable future.
It's a devastating blow to the defending NBA champions both in the present and the near future. Tatum will be back for the Celtics eventually, but the team will likely look a lot different than the one he tried to lead to a win Monday night.
Jayson Tatum injury
Tatum was injured with three minutes to go in Boston's Game 4 loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. He lunged for a loose ball at the top of the key, but instead fell to the floor in obvious pain while grabbing his right ankle. He had to be helped off the floor and was taken through the arena in a wheelchair.
Tatum was once again leading the Celtics in every category this postseason. He had 43 points, eight rebounds, four assists, and four steals against the Knicks before leaving the game Monday night. The 121-113 loss dropped the Celtics into a 3-1 series hole against the Knicks in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Overcoming that deficit without Tatum is going to be extremely difficult, especially with Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis still not at full strength. Game 5 is Wednesday night at TD Garden in Boston.
When could Jayson Tatum return from his Achilles injury?
Shortly after the Tatum news broke, WBZ-TV's Brandon Truitt spoke with Dr. Gregory Waryasz, an orthopedic surgeon and the Director of Foot & Ankle Sports Medicine at Mass General Brigham. Dr. Waryasz hadn't seen Tatum's MRI, but said the Celtics star is likely in for a 9-12-month recovery.
"The Achilles is the main tendon in the lower leg below the knee. It connects the calf muscles to the heel bone and allows you to push off," he explained. "Initial recovery [of a rupture] is a couple of weeks of non weight-bearing, followed by prolonged time in a boot – usually three months. Then you start working on functional recovery and then start to return to sports activities after five months.
"Usually for someone in Tatum's situation, it's a 9-12-month injury," said Dr. Waryasz.
Celtics without Jayson Tatum
Tatum rarely misses games for the Celtics, a true ironman and workhorse in today's "load management" NBA. The longest stretch he's missed in his career was five games, and that was due to COVID in the 2021 season. Since Tatum entered the NBA in 2017, no player in the league has played more minutes than the Celtics star.
He did miss his first-ever playoff game a few weeks ago when he sat out Boston's Game 2 win over the Orlando Magic with a wrist injury, but it only sidelined him for that one game. Overall, Tatum missed 11 games during the regular and postseason this year, and Boston went 9-2 in those games.
But let's note that six of those wins were against teams that weren't interested in winning games in Portland, Utah, Brooklyn, Phoenix, Washington and Charlotte.
Losing Tatum is a massive blow to Boston's bid for back-to-back titles this postseason, and not having him next season could usher in some major changes to the Celtics in the offseason.
