Danilo Gallinari didn’t want to be right. But he knew he was. He felt it.
After Gallinari went down with a left knee injury in late August while playing for Italy in a FIBA World Cup qualifier, Italian team doctors announced he had suffered a torn meniscus. But the new Celtics forward wasn’t convinced. Gallinari, who suffered a torn ACL in the same knee in 2013, was all too familiar with what he was feeling.
“I knew from experience that something was wrong right away,” Gallinari said Tuesday. “The way that I got injured was very similar to the way I got injured the first time I did my ACL. So yeah, my feelings were that something big (was) happening in my knee.
“Unfortunately, I was right.”
About a week later, the Celtics confirmed what Gallinari feared – the second ACL tear of his career. On Sept. 23, he underwent successful surgery and soon after began his long rehabilitation process. Again.
When Gallinari tore his ACL for the first time in April 2013, he missed the entirety of the 2013-14 season. It seems unlikely that he’ll return to the Celtics this season, but he doesn’t want to look too far ahead.
“I’m just taking it day by day,” Gallinari said when asked if he can return this season. “That’s the best way to approach a rehab and approach an injury like this, to take it day by day and not really think about what’s going to happen in the future. So that’s the approach that I have.”
The 34-year-old Gallinari signed with the Celtics as a free agent this summer and was expected to be a valuable contributor and shooting threat off the bench as he pursued his first title. The sudden injury was obviously a bitter pill to swallow.
“It’s tough mentally,” he said. “The good and the bad thing is that I’ve been through this already, so I know what to expect. But it’s always tough, especially when you approach a situation like this, coming to play for the Celtics, ready to help the team winning. It’s tough, but nothing I can do about it. We’re here and now we gotta focus on the rehab.”
Now, early on in the rehab process, Gallinari is focused on earning small victories.
Gallinari said he started walking again two or three days ago, and he’s been told that he’ll be cleared to start shooting in some capacity soon. Those milestones may not sound significant but he described them as big steps in the process.
“It’s way better to play basketball than rehabbing,” Gallinari said. “But it happens, it’s a long process. The good thing is that it’s something that the small improvements that you see every day, those are the things that make you happy and keep going and keep trying to get better every day. That’s the way it is.”
Gallinari said he’ll stay in Boston during the rehab process to be close with the team, and he’ll be in attendance at TD Garden for Celtics games this season.
The 6-foot-10 forward will hope he can play in them eventually, whether it winds up being this season or the second year of his deal in 2023-24. When he tore his ACL for the first time, Gallinari came back and though injuries limited him in some seasons, he regained his form and was better in some ways, as he scored at career-high levels with the Nuggets in 2015-16 and Clippers in 2018-19. That was when he was younger, and the C’s won’t expect that when he returns, but Gallinari hopes another major comeback is in store this time.
“I can say that you have to be very strong mentally to be able to keep doing what I’ve been doing for so many years,” Gallinari said. “That’s maybe the best part of my game and myself is the mental toughness, so mentally you gotta be very strong, especially when this happened to you already and if you do it again, even tougher. But like I said, it happened to me but I came back stronger and better. I’m still here and I’m going to come back, even if I’m not that young anymore, but I’m going to come back stronger and better again.”
