UConn’s star level guard Paige Bueckers tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee on Monday and can miss the 2022-23 girls’s basketball season, the college introduced Wednesday.
Bueckers, a 20-year-old guard from Minnesota, was injured throughout a pickup basketball recreation, UConn officers mentioned in an announcement. The 5-foot-11 junior can have surgical procedure on Friday at UConn Well being.
“It’s so loopy since you work so onerous to get again wholesome, you’re feeling stronger than ever, and you’re enjoying your greatest basketball and with one sudden motion all of it shifts,” Bueckers wrote on Instagram. “It’s onerous attempting to make a lot sense of all of it now however I can’t assist however suppose that God is utilizing me as an affidavit as to how a lot you possibly can overcome with Him by your facet.”
Typically, restoration time for an A.C.L. harm is no less than eight months.
“We’re all devastated for Paige,” UConn Coach Geno Auriemma mentioned in an announcement. “She’s labored actually onerous to get stronger and more healthy this low season, and that is an unlucky setback. Paige is clearly an incredible basketball participant however she’s a greater particular person and teammate and it’s actually unlucky that this has occurred to her. We’ll miss her presence on the courtroom, however she’ll do every thing she will be able to to nonetheless lead and assist her teammates this season.”
Bueckers underwent surgical procedure on her left knee on Dec. 13 to restore an anterior tibial plateau fracture and lateral meniscus tear that she suffered throughout UConn’s recreation on Dec. 5 towards Notre Dame.
She returned in late February and helped lead UConn to the nationwide championship recreation, through which she notched 14 factors and 6 rebounds in a loss to South Carolina in Minneapolis.
Through the nationwide semifinal towards Stanford, she landed on her unhealthy knee throughout a tussle for a bounce ball after which coated her face along with her arms.
“Some issues, like what occurred final evening, are extra of an in-the-moment sort of ache and you may simply shake it off,” Bueckers mentioned then. “I used to be simply stretching and ensuring I may get again within the recreation as quickly as attainable.”
Bueckers was named the Related Press and Naismith Faculty Participant of the Yr as a freshman for the 2020-21 season, when she averaged 20.0 factors, 5.7 assists and 4.9 rebounds.
“God put a dream in my coronary heart and even when I’ve to stroll by way of a nightmare to get it I’m going to maintain believing,” Bueckers wrote on Instagram on Wednesday.
