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 women’s basketball’s injury woes continue, with redshirt freshman Jana El Alfy injuring her Achilles tendon, the Egyptian Basketball Federation announced Monday.
El Alfy was starring for Egypt’s youth national team at the FIBA U19 World Cup in Madrid. She led the tournament with 21.4 points per game before the injury, as well as leading Egypt with 11.0 rebounds and 50.5% field goal shooting.
In Sunday’s game against Italy, El Alfy went down halfway through the second quarter on a noncontact injury. She was later escorted off the court in a wheelchair.
“Jana (El Alfy) left the match stadium immediately and went to a hospital near the stadium to undergo immediate X-rays in the presence of Yasmine Al-Kilani, the team doctor,” the Egyptian Basketball Federation said in a news release translated from Arabic to English via Google Translate. “And Yasmine Al-Kilani confirmed that after conducting the necessary medical examinations for Jana (El Alfy), it was confirmed that she had a complete cut in the Achilles tendon.”
The national federation and its team doctors “coordinated” with UConn to discuss the injury and next steps, and El Alfy is set to have surgery in the United States, per the news release.
While UConn has yet to release details on El Alfy, her injury represents the latest in a string of injuries for the program.
Paige Bueckers and Ice Brady missed all of last season due to injuries suffered last offseason, and Azzi Fudd missed most of the season with knee injuries. While all three players should be back in action for the 2023-24 season, El Alfy’s injury still is a blow to the Huskies.