Liam Hendriks is, by his own admission, not a patient person. That’s made sitting out most of the past two years especially difficult, as the veteran closer first battled and beat cancer before then undergoing Tommy John surgery shortly after his return last spring.

But after months of rehab and working out behind the scenes, Wednesday finally brought a meaningful step back towards normalcy.

Prior to the game Hendriks got back on the mound and threw his first bullpen session since undergoing elbow surgery. The right-hander threw 15 pitches, all fastballs, and afterwards he said things went well even if he wasn’t as crisp as he would’ve preferred.

“It’s nice. Obviously it’s where I feel more comfortable,” Hendriks said. “I’ve had only five meaningful real games in almost two years, so it’s been a little trek to get there but today was a nice stepping stone.”

A three-time All-Star, Hendriks signed with the Red Sox this past offseason on a two-year, $10 million deal. The expectation at the time was he could potentially pitch sometime in the second half, and while Hendriks doesn’t want to look too far ahead, he believes an August return is still realistic.

“Yes, that’s definitely doable for me,” Hendriks said. “As far as I know we’re on track for August and that’s the goal.”

Prior to his cancer diagnosis and subsequent elbow trouble, Hendriks was one of the best closers in baseball. The Australia native enjoyed a phenomenal four-year run between 2019-22 when he recorded 114 saves and posted a 2.26 ERA and 359 strikeouts over 239 innings with the Oakland Athletics and Chicago White Sox.

The hope is Hendriks can have a similar impact upon his return, but in the meantime the Red Sox have praised the 35-year-old for his impact in the clubhouse, even if Hendriks says his desire to not hold back sometimes puts him at odds with the club’s training staff.

“I don’t know whether the trainers love me or want to kill me,” “Every day is a struggle to try and tell them to let me do more and them trying to hold me back into a normal stratosphere, which (stinks). But we’ve been on a good plan, we keep doing it, and hopefully I can get a couple more bullpens so I can stop doing certain exercises that I hate doing and we can go from there.”