Injuries in the WNBA are starting to stack up. On top of players who started the season already hurt (Georgia Amoore, Katie Lou Samuelson, Kahleah Copper), more are starting to suffer injuries as the season ramps up. Maybe the biggest injury news of the season so far was Caitlin Clark having to sit out for two weeks with a quad strain. Her Indiana Fever ended up losing the first game she sat out of, an away game versus the Washington Mystics.
Another big injury popped up on a status report Friday morning — Napheesa Collier. The Minnesota Lynx leader is questionable for their Friday game with a knee injury. The Lynx will play the Phoenix Mercury in an attempt to push their winning streak to 6-0 and stay undefeated on the season. If Collier does indeed sit out, that goal may be harder to achieve.
Collier is averaging 26.8 points through Minnesota’s first five games, achieving that with extreme efficiency. She is shooting 52.7% from the field, 43.8% from three, and 93.9% from the free throw line. She anchors both the defense and offense for the Lynx, coming off a 2024 season that saw her win Defensive Player of the Year.
While losing Collier for a game would not be ideal for the Lynx, it’s not something that means an automatic loss. This Lynx team is built with extreme depth and led by the league’s best coach, Cheryl Reeve. Their roster was created intentionally to be able to weather any storm the WNBA brings, especially the unavoidable aspect of injury.
Per Lucas Seehafer, who completed his PhD in kinesiology on injury epidemiology in the WNBA and tracks the WNBA’s injuries season by season, there are currently 3.7 injuries per day in the league. There have been 55 injuries total since the season started at the beginning of May, and players have lost 304 games due to these injuries.
While there are a lot of conclusions to be drawn from these findings, a big one is that injuries are a part of the sport, of any sport. The way teams win is by building rosters that can thrive regardless of this fact and be ready to compete no matter what the season throws at them.
If Collier misses her first WNBA game of the season this weekend, the Lynx will be tested in this category. If the 2025 Minnesota Lynx can thrive even with Phee resting, it just makes them that much more dangerous as a contender. As the current frontrunner in the MVP conversation, she is crucial to her team’s success. The goal is to have her available as much as possible, but they also need to learn to thrive without her, or at least survive.
While the Lynx play the Mercury on Friday in what will be a competitive game, they also play the Golden State Valkyries on Sunday. That would be a winnable game without Collier should she need to miss it. The Lynx then play the Mercury again on Tuesday, and have the rest of next week off. Ample time for Collier to rest that knee at home before heading into games against Dallas and Seattle.
As sad as it is to see top players potentially have to sit with an injury, the longevity of their health matters more. If Phee needs to sit for a few games to be healthy for the rest of the season, so be it.
