Tyrese Haliburton missed the entire 2025-26 season while recovering from the torn right Achilles tendon he suffered in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals. Fifteen months after the injury, the Indiana Pacers guard says he is healthy and ready to play again.
“I am the source. I am healthy right now,” Haliburton said on Sept. 12. His statement is the clearest public indication yet of how he feels, but it is not the same as an official medical clearance or a commitment from Indiana to give him a normal workload immediately.
Haliburton’s recovery reached the court gradually
Haliburton underwent surgery on June 23, 2025. His rehabilitation began in a walking boot and progressed through individual work, controlled basketball activity and eventually five-on-five play.
The process was interrupted early in 2026 when Haliburton developed shingles. He has said the illness caused nerve pain, swelling and medication-related weight gain, delaying his return to full basketball work. By April, he had resumed five-on-five activity. During the summer, he continued playing pickup games and rebuilding the conditioning required for an NBA schedule.
Haliburton’s confidence has increased with each milestone. In August, he said he would be ready if the season began immediately. The September declaration removes the qualifier from his own assessment, although the Pacers still control how quickly he is reintroduced to competitive games.
Indiana may still manage the opening weeks
Reports around the Pacers indicate that the team could limit Haliburton early in the season. That would be a reasonable precaution after a major tendon injury and a full year away, particularly when preseason games cannot reproduce the physical demands of an NBA schedule.
Coach Rick Carlisle has not announced a specific minutes restriction. Training camp and preseason will therefore matter less as a test of whether Haliburton can produce one strong performance and more as an evaluation of how his body responds to repeated practices, travel and recovery days.
The Pacers around him have changed
Indiana finished 19-63 without Haliburton and used the season to give larger roles to younger players. The Pacers also added veteran center Ivica Zubac, while Braden Smith and Karim Lopez gained experience during the year.
Haliburton averaged 18.6 points and 9.2 assists across 73 regular-season games in 2024-25, his final season before the injury. Restoring that level of play would give Indiana the lead creator it lacked during the rebuilding year, but the roster will not simply return to its old structure. Zubac offers a new screening and interior presence, and the development of Indiana’s younger players should give Carlisle more lineup options.
Health and readiness are different questions
Haliburton’s declaration matters because it signals that he no longer views the Achilles as an obstacle to playing. It does not answer how many minutes he should handle on opening night or how quickly his timing will return against NBA defenses.
The first meaningful evidence will come when camp opens and the Pacers can evaluate him through consecutive full practices. Haliburton believes the rehabilitation is behind him. Indiana’s challenge is to make sure the return lasts longer than the excitement surrounding his first game back.