LONDON — Danny Ainge doesn’t tweet often, but when the Celtics president took to social media Tuesday night, he managed to jolt the expectations of his fans.

Ainge posted a photo of Gordon Hayward, free of the brace the forward has been wearing on his surgically repaired left leg, after officiating a race between his basketball skills coach and his physical therapist.

But Ainge doesn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea. Yes, the brace is off, but it’s at precisely the point in Hayward’s rehabilitation when it was expected to happen.

“Right on schedule,” said Ainge, who stressed the team’s position on the forward’s return remains focused on training camp next fall instead of later this season, while also never saying never when a potential Hayward return late this season is concerned.

In the meantime, Hayward has his hands full without looking too far down the road.

That’s what Jason Smeathers and Stephen Mount, the two contestants in that swim meet at the team’s Waltham practice facility, are there for.

Smeathers is a skills coach and Indiana native who is also one of Hayward’s longtime friends. Mount, an Australian physical therapist, was hired by the Celtics in November and remained behind to work with Hayward while the rest of the staff traveled here for today’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers.

“Jason is there with him working with Gordon, watching games with him, going over things with him when he’s shooting in the chair,” Ainge said.

Beyond the fact Hayward is now brace-free, little has changed from a basketball standpoint.

“Yesterday was the day he got out of the brace. He’s doing the standard shooting in place and dribbling in place, and nothing more than that on the court,” Ainge said. “He’s slowly getting his strength back. But it’s still way too early for talk of anything else. We’re still aiming to have him ready for training camp next year.”

News that Hayward has shed his brace certainly gave Al Horford a spark of excitement.

“That’s great news, just happy for Gordon,” the Celtics center said after practice yesterday. “It’s difficult when you’re going through injury and every little step like that is a big milestone. The biggest thing for him is to be able to be healthy and be able to walk, do everything he needs to do and start building. We don’t have any expectations, but we hope he recovers quickly.”

Though the Celtics still plan to bring Hayward on the road with them, Europe clearly wasn’t part of that schedule.

Stevens admitted this week that it was difficult not to bring his former Butler star overseas, adding, “Hopefully we’ll get him back on the road soon so maybe he can do some workouts in hotels and be around the team a little bit more.”

The Celtics coach expressed tempered enthusiasm when he said, “All the way from the surgery to the rehab and everything else, it’s been great. That said, he hasn’t done anything on the court, so there’s so many boxes still to check. But he’s making good strides. But the timeline and those things don’t change.

“This is exactly what they thought the timeline would be like. Being out of a brace, there’s a long way to go.”