Tyrese Haliburton Strains His Hamstring Four Games Into His Comeback, Will Miss at Least Two Weeks

By The Arena Staff

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 28, 2026 — Tyrese Haliburton spent 16 months getting back to an NBA floor. He got four games.

The Pacers star has a mild strain in his left hamstring and is week-to-week, coach Rick Carlisle said Wednesday, and he will miss at least two weeks. "I don't think it is realistic that he'd play before that," Carlisle said, according to ESPN. "And then go from there." ESPN's Shams Charania first reported the strain earlier in the day, and the Pacers confirmed Carlisle's update on the team's official X account.

The day had a worried feel from the start. Carlisle told 107.5 The Fan in Indianapolis that the team had brought in a hamstring expert it has consulted before to meet with Haliburton, the training staff and members of the front office ahead of Wednesday night's home game against Philadelphia. "We'll hope this hamstring thing is not a big deal or not any kind of a long-term thing," he said on the station, as NBC Sports noted.

Haliburton had looked like himself. After missing all of last season with the torn Achilles he suffered in the 2025 NBA Finals, he averaged 21.8 points, 9.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds through the first four games while shooting 52% and playing 33 minutes a night, ESPN reported. That stretch included a back-to-back on Sunday and Monday, and he admitted feeling "a little beat up" after Monday's game in Milwaukee before turning up on Wednesday's injury report.

The left hamstring has bitten him before. In January 2024, Haliburton missed 10 of 11 games with an injury to it, then aggravated it in the playoffs and sat out the final two games of the Eastern Conference finals against Boston, according to ESPN. NBC Sports pointed out that teams tend to be careful with hamstrings because they are easy to re-injure, so two weeks may be the floor rather than the target.

Indiana knows what life without him looks like. The Pacers won 19 games last season, the fewest in franchise history, while he recovered. And the list is long already: Ivica Zubac was ruled out Wednesday with a left ankle sprain, T.J. McConnell is expected to miss about another week with a right hamstring strain, Ben Sheppard tore his left meniscus and faces months out, and Johnny Furphy had surgery on his right ACL, ESPN reported.

Haliburton is the latest name on a growing early-season injury list across the league, joining Oklahoma City's Jalen Williams, Toronto's Kawhi Leonard and Minnesota's Anthony Edwards.

Sources: ESPN, NBC Sports and the Indiana Pacers.