Tyrese Haliburton Details His Rough Experience With Face Shingles

Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton missed this NBA season after tearing his Achilles during last year’s NBA Finals, and he’s recently dealt with face shingles on top of his Achilles recovery. It’s been an unfortunate year for Haliburton, to say the least.

Haliburton spoke to media on Monday to provide updates on his shingles, eight weeks into the virus. Shingles is a rash caused by the same virus as chickenpox, with Haliburton’s rash appearing on his face. The rash has since disappeared, but the itching and swelling of his eyes and face hasn’t gone away. He lost part of his eyebrow because of shingles. At one point, Haliburton shared that his eye was essentially closed shut because of how swollen it got.

He showed up to his media availability wearing glasses, which he says he now wears in order to halt him from itching his face. Haliburton detailed what the experience of having face shingles has been like for him.

“I have good days and bad days, but for the most part, it’s bad days. It hasn’t been any fun. I’m still obviously dealing with it,” Haliburton said, via The Athletic’s James Boyd. “I’ve been taking unbelievable amounts of medication to try to get rid of it. It hasn’t worked. It’s obviously caused me to gain weight and look a little bigger. That’s been a topic of conversation through social media and stuff. It’s not been fun and hopefully it goes away here pretty soon.”

#Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton “lost part my eyebrow” due to face shingles:

“I’ve been taking unbelievable amounts of medication to try to get rid of it. It hasn’t worked. It’s obviously caused me to gain weight … That’s been a topic of conversation through social media …” pic.twitter.com/nRSpgnzjm6
— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) April 13, 2026

One unfortunate series of events for Haliburton is the weight gain he’s accumlated from his Achilles rehab and now shingles. Back in January, the Indiana star detailed to LeBron James on his podcast Mind the Game that he was bulking up from lifting during his recovery. Haliburton said it was the biggest he’d ever been because of the muscle gain. The problem is that he gained this muscle weight before getting shingles, and now his medication has a weight gain side effect, leading him to gain even more.

Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday, Haliburton shared the rude new nickname he’s gotten online because of his weight gain.

“One of the new side effects of the meds is that I’m always hungry and weight gain,” Haliburton said. “... They’re killing me on social media. I see I’m being called Tyrese ‘Haliburger.’ That’s been the new one.”

People gotta chill on Hali 😭

(via @PatMcAfeeShow) pic.twitter.com/wlRZF2kWHw
— Overtime (@overtime) April 13, 2026

After reaching the finals last season, the Pacers missed out on the postseason after finishing 19–63 this season. Haliburton watched his team struggle from the sidelines as he continued to recover from his injury suffered in Game 7 of the Finals last June.

Haliburton’s recovery has been on track throughout the past 10 or so months, so he’ll be set to return to the court for the 2026–27 season. Hopefully his face shingles will better soon and he can start preparing this offseason to get back on the court in full health.

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