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 might be enjoying your greatest basketball and with one sudden motion all of it shifts,” Bueckers wrote on Instagram. “It’s onerous making an attempt to make a lot sense of all of it now however I can’t assist however assume that God is utilizing me as an affidavit as to how a lot you’ll be able to overcome with Him by your facet.”
On the whole, 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 court docket, however she’ll do every little thing she will 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.
Throughout the nationwide semifinal towards Stanford, she landed on her unhealthy knee throughout a tussle for a leap ball after which lined her face together with her arms.
“Some issues, like what occurred final night time, are extra of an in-the-moment kind of ache and you’ll 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 doable.”
Bueckers was named the Related Press and Naismith Faculty Participant of the 12 months 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 via a nightmare to get it I’m going to maintain believing,” Bueckers wrote on Instagram on Wednesday.