Reese announced on Saturday night that her rookie WNBA year was over due to a wrist injury, which she suffered in a game vs. the LA Sparks.
And speaking in a TikTok afterwards, she said that she suffered a hairline fracture from falling on her hand after converting an and-one, explaining that there had been a small crack in her bone.
‘Basically the doctors told me that I could either not get surgery or have surgery. The risk of not having surgery – I could literally have arthritis at 22 years old. That wasn’t an option,’ she said, via the New York Post.
‘The bone could literally crack and completely shatter. Right now, it’s like a hairline… They’re going to put a small screw in it. And I wasn’t going for it getting any bigger.’
Reese continued to explain the severity of her injury and disputed the notion that she was ‘faking’ it in any way.
Did I fake an injury? Let’s be real. I literally played with my ankle like a literal golf ball when we played against Iowa [in college]. Pain, you know I’m hurt when I can’t play,’ she said.
‘They told me ‘you’re shut down, you can’t play,’ that’s what they [the Sky] told me yesterday… Obviously they gave me options to play and deal with the pain as tolerated but it’s not worth it.
‘I want to have a long career in the league. I want to play basketball for a while so it’s not worth it.’
Reese’s injury appears to have happened in the third quarter of her team’s win over the Sparks on Friday, as a video shows her falling on her hand after an and-one as she described.
Reese also shot down unfounded rumors that she was pregnant.
‘That was never a thing… I want to make this crystal clear, I don’t have a man to have kids, I don’t have a ring to have kids I am 22 with no kids. And I’m not coming to kids,’ Reese said.
So that’s not going to be a thing anytime soon. I just want y’all to know that. because I know y’all like to have some clicks.
Reese added that she will be in a hard cast for four weeks, a soft cast for two, and then she’d be ‘back to doing my own thing.’
She said that while she had the hard cast on she’d be working on her off hand (left hand) skills, improving her conditioning, lifting and cheering her teammates on while they try to secure a playoff spot.
The Sky are currently clinging onto the last playoff spot in the WNBA in eighth place, with a 13-22 record.