UConn basketball has had no shortage of injuries over the last three seasons.

Azzi Fudd’s season-ending knee injury represents just the latest blow to the Huskies’ lineup. The junior guard tore the ACL and meniscus in her right knee during practice on Nov. 14. And she’s not the only one sidelined for UConn, with Jana El Alfy having torn her Achilles tendon in July and Ayanna Patterson still out after an offseason knee surgery.

WNBA star Diamond DeShields asked on social media after Fudd’s injury: “Who the strength coach there …? Cuz WTF.” But Fudd’s father came to the defense of the program, noting that the injuries have “nothing to do with the strength coach” and are instead “the flukiest things I’ve ever seen.”

Just Women’s Sports lays out a timeline of the most significant injuries to UConn women’s basketball over the last three seasons.

2021-22 season:

Aubrey Griffin missed the entire season with a back injury, for which she underwent surgery in January 2022.

On Dec. 1, Fudd suffered a foot injury forced her out of the lineup for 11 games. It was the first major injury of Fudd’s career at UConn, though she had torn the ACL and MCL in her right knee in high school. And just four days later, UConn star Paige Bueckers suffered a tibial plateau fracture that kept her out of 19 games for the Huskies.

While the team remained relatively healthy through January and February. But come the postseason, Dorka Juhász fractured her wrist in the Elite Eight, which kept her out of the Final Four. UConn made the national championship game but lost to South Carolina.

2022-23 season:

UConn’s injury problems during the 2022-23 season can be summed up with one incident: The Huskies had to postpone their game against DePaul in early January due to a lack of healthy players.

It all started in August, when Bueckers tore her ACL, which caused her to miss the entirety of the season. Then, in October, freshman Ice Brady dislocated her patella tendon, which ended her season before it started.

Mere months after fracturing her wrist, Juhász suffered a broken thumb on Nov. 19, which kept her out of seven games. Then, on Dec. 4, Fudd suffered a knee injury that initially kept her out of nine games. She made her return in January, only to reinjure the same knee on Jan. 15 and miss an additional 13 games.

Meanwhile, Caroline Ducharme missed 14 games due to a concussion suffered on Jan. 3. Given that the team struggled with injuries all season, UConn never could find a groove and bowed out of the NCAA tournament in the Sweet 16 – the Huskies’ first time not making the Elite Eight since 2005.

2023-24 season:

To start the new season, UConn is still without Patterson, who had surgery on her knee in the offseason. And both El Alfy and Fudd are out for year. Plus Caroline Ducharme has missed the team’s last two games with neck and back spasms, with no timeline for her return as of Dec. 1.

The No. 11 Huskies are 4-2 to start the season, with a top-25 battle against No. 10 Texas up next at 3 p.m. ET Sunday on ABC.

UConn’s roster continues to work its way back to full strength, with Ice Brady set to make her debut for the Huskies after missing her entire freshman season with a dislocated kneecap.

Brady entered her freshman year as the fifth-ranked recruit in the nation, and buzz is building around her return, especially as the Huskies look to fill out their frontcourt.

“Now don’t get me wrong, she hasn’t played college basketball and there’s some issues that are going to rise and all that,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma told CT Insider. “But anytime a kid can make shots from the perimeter, score in the lane, (is a) really good passer; she just has that kind of game.”

Had Brady been healthy, she likely would have started her freshman season competing for minutes off the bench. But she would have been a big boost in an injury-riddled year for the Huskies.

“Ice is a great player. I was so excited for her to play last year so this year I’m even more excited,” Azzi Fudd said. “… She’d always be worried about what this year would look like for her, and I would tell her, ‘You’re gonna be the same player if not better than when you got hurt.’”

The injury helped Brady become closer with star guard Paige Bueckers, who missed the season with a torn ACL. With the return of the 2021 National Player of the year grabbing headlines, Brady has “flown under the radar,” Bueckers said.

But Fudd, who was Brady’s roommate all of last year, says the redshirt freshman has come back “better than I remember.”

Ice Brady and Paige Bueckers both missed all of the 2022-23 season with knee injuries. But the UConn basketball stars used that time to create a bond that should help the team once they retake the court.

After dislocating her patella in the preseason, Brady spent her freshman year on the bench. But she had good company in 2021 national player of the year Bueckers, who tore her ACL ahead of the season. The seasoned veteran helped her younger teammate navigate the loneliness that came with their injuries.

For Brady, one of the toughest parts of the injury came when her teammates would make their way to the court for practice, while she remained in the treatment room to rehab her injury.

“That was very tough,” she told CT Insider. “And personally, me, I feel like I enjoy being around the team and, you know, just having people around. I didn’t like being alone.”

Bueckers provided much-needed connection for Brady, and the benefit went both ways.

“As unfortunate as it was, to be able to have each other to lean on through the toughest times of our life was extremely important,” Bueckers said.

The pair would motivate one another in the training room and through workouts, often waking up early to get in a lift before joining the team for practice. And Bueckers, who also missed time with an injury in the previous season, helped show Brady that the injury didn’t define her.

“She definitely like took me under her wing and mentored me,” Brady said.

As UConn prepares for the 2023-24 season, both players are getting back to full strength. Both Bueckers and Brady are waiting to be cleared for five-on-five drills but otherwise are back at practice with the Huskies.

Without Bueckers and Brady, and without sophomore Azzi Fudd for much of the season, UConn entered the 2023 NCAA tournament with a No. 2 seed, then bowed out in the Sweet 16. The loss snapped a streak of 14 consecutive Final Four appearances by the Huskies.

Yet even with the return of star players from injury, UConn is not looking for redemption, head coach Geno Auriemma told reporters Tuesday.

“Everybody’s got ‘redeem team’ and everybody’s got ‘reload team’ and everybody’s got ‘unfinished business team’… How about we just shut the f— up and win games?” he said. “How about we just do that?”

UConn women’s basketball is down to just 10 healthy players for the season after freshman forward Ice Brady suffered a season-ending injury in practice Friday.

Brady dislocated the patella in her right knee. She underwent surgery Tuesday and will begin rehab Wednesday.

The injury comes after star junior Paige Bueckers sustained her own season-ending knee injury, as she tore her ACL during a pickup game in August.

“Anytime any player has an injury, it’s so heartbreaking because they put so much time and effort into being the best player they can be,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said in a statement. “When that’s taken away — regardless of how long they’re out — to not be able to play is unfortunate.

“Ice has made so much progress since she’s been here and I’m really confident that when she does come back, she’s going to be better and more impactful than she already has been.”

The No. 5 recruit in her class per ESPN’s rankings, Brady is just the latest Huskies player to go down. Injuries have plagued the team over the past two seasons.

Last season, the team lost both Bueckers and sophomore Azzi Fudd for significant stretches of the season. Fudd, who is expected to take on the bulk of the work in Bueckers’ absence, dealt with a nagging foot injury even after her return — and her foot still is not fully healed.

“We’re doing some things to help with the pain and I’m managing it,” she told The Athletic. “It’s a problem that will be fixed after the season.”

UConn lost Christyn Williams, Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Evina Westbrook to the WNBA, and Dorka Juhász (wrist), Caroline Ducharme (hip) and Aubrey Griffin (back) all have yet to return to full strength.

If any of the above-mentioned players sustain another injury (or re-injury), that will spell trouble for Auriemma’s squad. While he brought in Inês Bettencourt from Portugal to add another guard to the team’s depth chart, the Huskies are stretched thin before the season even starts.

UConn is scheduled to begin the 2022-23 campaign against Northeastern on Nov. 10.