The Cleveland Cavaliers kicked off Monday's Media Day with some positive news regarding the health of Isaiah Thomas.

The point guard was acquired by the Cavs in the trade that sent Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics but arrived with the hip injury that ended his season against the Wine and Gold in the Eastern Conference Finals.

In Thomas' introductory press conference with the team, general manager Koby Altman made it clear they wouldn't be answering any questions regarding his injury status and have remained tight-lipped on the matter until this point.

Knowing that it would be an important issue for the assembled media to address, the Cavaliers released a statement on the status of Isaiah before he took to the podium.

The statement read: "Isaiah Thomas has successfully continued with the rehabilitation process related to his right hip impingement.

"Based on his progress thus far and after several weeks of evaluation and monitoring with the Cavaliers medical team and Cleveland Clinic Sports Health, the team and Thomas are hopeful he will be in position to return by January."

This will be music to the ears of Cleveland fans as there were doubts about how much of the campaign Thomas would miss.

There are even suggestions that the two-time All-Star could potentially return in time to face the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day.

After being unable to do anything for months, IT is happy with the progress he's making and the work he's been able to carry out with the team's training staff.

"I'm getting stronger. Physically I'm in a good place. I'm making progress every day," he said. "These last three weeks, I've been able to be with this training staff six days a week and focused on getting my strength back in that muscle."

There was much speculation over the summer about Isaiah's injury with some reports even suggesting that the 28-year-old was potentially going to miss the entire season.

But the Cavs coaching staff have been encouraged by how far he's come in such a short space of time.

"It's great news," coach Tyronn Lue said. "Just seeing the way he's progressed over the course of these last few weeks. Any time you can implement a guy who was I think fifth in the MVP voting and averaged 29 points a game, he's an All-Star.

"Any time you can get a guy like that back into your fold it's a great opportunity."

The Ohio-based franchise begins its training camp today ahead of their regular season opener against the Boston Celtics on October 17.