To the delight of Celtics fans, it looked like Gordon Hayward was back to his old self in 2019. The 29-year-old struggled last year for Boston, his first full year after suffering a scary injury in the first game of the 2017-18 season.

This season, Hayward looked like the player Boston shelled out a four-year $218 million contract for. In the team's first games, he often looked like the best player on the floor, averaging 18.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists while shooting an efficient 55.5 percent from the field and 43.3 percent from deep.

Unfortunately, the former Utah Jazz star suffered a left hand injury in the team's Nov. 9 matchup against the San Antonio Spurs and has missed the last 11 games for the Celtics. The timeline for Hayward's injury is still on pace of 4-6 weeks but for the 10-year pro, it's something he's going to have to deal with for most of the season.

“It’s definitely something where, hopefully not the rest of the season, but certainly a lengthy part of the season, I’m going to have to continue to get treatment, continue to ice it and kind of manage some of the symptoms,” Hayward said, per Tom Westerholm of Masslive.com. “I don’t want it to get hit again, but I’m sure it will get hit again, and when that happens it’ll be sore. So I’ll manage that. But it’ll be something I deal with for the rest of the year.”

Injury issues have of course been a problem for Hayward ever since he arrived in Boston.

The Celtics were 7-1 this year prior to Hayward's injury, so for Boston fans, getting him back to full strength and comfortable with his injured hand is of the upmost importance.