Phoenix Mercury All-Star center Brittney Griner will miss the beginning of the WNBA season with a fractured toe on her left foot.
The Mercury announced her injury on Monday, a day before the start of the WNBA season. She’ll be re-evaluated “in the coming weeks,” per the team. It’s not clear how or when she sustained the injury.
Phoenix opens its season Tuesday against the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces in a nationally televised game on ESPN 2.
Griner, 33, is an eight-time All-Star and the Mercury’s best player. She led the Mercury in points, rebounds and blocks last season while averaging 17.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.6 blocks per game.
Griner returned to the Mercury in 2023 after being imprisoned in Russia for 294 days. Per the U.S. government, which negotiated a prisoner swap to bring her home, Griner was “wrongfully detained” as a political prisoner under Vladamir Putin’s regime. Russian officials detained her after she transported a vape cartridge containing 0.7 grams of hash oil with THC through a Russian aiport.
Griner opened up publicly earlier in May for the first time about her imprisonment, more than two years after she was taken into custody. She described her horrid prison conditions and told ABC’s Robin Roberts that she considered taking her life in the first few weeks of her confinement
After her release, she returned to the league largely to form while earning her eighth All-Star bid.
