Gordon Hayward is feeling good about the future as the Boston Celtics star recovers from ankle surgery.

In an entry entitled "Won't Be Long Now" on his personal blog, Hayward explained the reasons for his operation last month, saying he went under the knife to remove hardware from his ankle.

"[The follow-up surgery was] not something we were expecting to be a part of this recovery process but I'm happy to report that I'll be back out there resuming rehab soon, with my sights set firmly on being back to my usual self for the start of next season," Hayward wrote, adding the procedure was considered "very rare" by his doctors.

Hayward detailed his development but said he was slowed by lingering pain on the outside of his joint.

"I had been progressing really well," Hayward added. "I had been doing cuts laterally. I was jumping. I hadn't done anything that explosive and I wasn't quite 100 per cent with any of it, but I was slowly building up to that.

"Problem was, I was also still having some pain on the outside of my ankle, kind of where the peroneal tendon is. I had been reporting back daily how I was feeling, and the team that I was working with in Indianapolis - along with the Celtics training staff - had surmised that it could be the hardware they put in during my initial surgery causing some irritation."

Hayward, who suffered a gruesome leg injury in the Celtics' opener and missed the rest of his inaugural season in Boston, expressed optimism about resuming 5-on-5 basketball by the end of next month and being fully healthy for the start of the 2018-19 season.

"I'm excited to get back to it," Hayward wrote. "I think at the recovery pace I'm currently on, I'll probably start running again in July.

"Once I get started, I'll be jogging, then running, and then cutting and moving, and all that could happen within one to two weeks of each other, to where by the end of July I am playing full court, 5-on-5 basketball. And that's probably the most exciting thing I could tell all of you."

Hayward, 28, was selected by the Utah Jazz with the ninth overall pick of the 2010 NBA Draft but signed a four-year deal worth $128 million with the Celtics last July.