Gordon Hayward’s wife provides injury update, forward out indefinitely

Gordon Hayward missed Friday’s game with a “shoulder contusion” but his wife shed light on his ongoing issues claiming he’s actually suffered a fracture on an IG story

If you read the headline and thought this was just another clickbait article, think again. The Charlotte Hornets fended off the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday to win their second game in a row after dropping the prior three. The final result, a 110-108 victory, marked Charlotte’s second win in Thanksgiving week with their most recent one having taken place on Monday, Nov. 14.

One man that didn’t help them in this latest winning effort was Gordon Hayward. The veteran forward appeared in three games from Nov. 19 to Nov. 24 but he’s now out indefinitely after missing Friday’s game with a “shoulder contusion.”

And with that, we have reached the point where things start to get murky.

The Charlotte Hornets put Hayward in early-November injury reports with what they deemed a “shoulder contusion,” similar to the way he entered the injury report on Friday. He missed eight consecutive games after getting that designation for the first time on Nov. 2 with Charlotte facing the Chicago Bulls.

This season, Hayward has played 11 games averaging around 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 dimes. Those figures are definitely not career-high marks, but they are on par with his career-wide averages. Even in a small sample, Hayward’s 44/38/76 shooting split is also close to what he’s done through his 12 prior years of pro-basketball play.

Finding Hayward on an injury report or sitting on the shelves is nothing new. Finding out why he’s there, though, has turned into a soap opera and a rather bad look for the Charlotte Hornets organization if all of what came to light yesterday is true.

Robyn Hayward, Gordon’s wife, posted the truth about the injury woes the forward is going through in an Instagram Story

You’re not going to find a post on Robyn’s Instagram account describing Gordon Hayward’s injury details, but if you explore her stories on the social network you’ll definitely get the whole story.

The first slide of the story includes a screen capture of the Hornets’ official injury report (by way of Novant Health), along with a detailed breakdown of the truth, revealed by Robyn.

“He actually has a fractured scapula,” starts Mrs. Hayward. “They had him play with [the injury] last game, that’s why he couldn’t move his arm up in the last game.” Robyn wrote that “everyone who knows Gordon knows he has one goal and that’s to win and play the right way” and that Gordon Hayward is “the most truthful player/person you’d find.”

“I’m gonna stop there and not get into prior things.”

Robyn proceeded to deal with the story in more detail, though. “Just to clarify – since the team doesn’t say. It’s a fracture in the shoulder,” wrote Robyn in his two-slide little story on Friday. “I’m over them not protecting players.”

Robyn Hayward then went on to describe her exchange with “a young player’s mom” who, according to Robyn, “was saying the same thing…”

This, obviously, is the worst possible news for the Charlotte Hornets on a pure sports basis. At the end of the day, Gordon Hayward is the best player on the team barring LaMelo Ball, who is already out nurturing an injury. More than that, though, this is really worrying and dangerous coming from a professional sports organization.

The Hornets shouldn’t be 1) hiding information from the rest of the teams around the league nor the NBA as the organizing body, and 2) putting players at risk by playing them while they have not fully recovered as Robyn implies in his IG story.

About an hour after the IG story was posted by Robyn, Shams Charania reported on Hayward’s getting “sidelined indefinitely” due to a “fracture” in his left shoulder. All of that a little after the very own Hornets ruled Hayward out of their game against Minnesota with a “shoulder contusion”, mind you.

It wouldn’t be surprising to find out about the NBA trying to look deeper into this story and what wrongdoings might be going on around the Hornets’ offices and health departments.

No further updates nor communications from the Charlotte Hornets organization have been made public since Charania’s report was posted yesterday. The Hornets play the Boston Celtics on Monday, Nov. 28, before resting until Friday, Dec. 2.