The release of drug from bacterial cellulose (BC) is tuned to achieve immediate and controlled delivery by using two drying strategies: freeze-drying and oven-drying. Diclofenac sodium (DCF), a hydrophilic drug, was used as the model drug and was loaded in oven-dried BC (BC-OD-DCF) and freeze-dried BC (BC-FD-DCF) to obtain sustained release and burst release, respectively. BC dried by the two methods were characterized and found to possess different structures and morphologies. The crystallinity was found to be higher for BC-OD (86 % for BC-OD and 79 % for BC-FD) while BC-FD offered higher porosity (92 % for BC-FD and 75 % for BC-OD), higher specific surface area (85 m2/g for BC-FD and 35 m2/g for BC-OD) and pore size, which altogether affects the matrix swellability, drug loading and release behaviour. The mathematical modelling of drug release kinetics supports diffusion-driven first-order release from BC-FD-DCF whereas release from BC-OD-DCF shows a super case II transport, where the buffer front travels slowly into the denser oven-dried matrix leading to a controlled release of the drug. The correlation between swelling and cumulative drug release is also discussed. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd