UConn Huskies women's basketball star Paige Bueckers to miss 2022-23 season after tearing ACL

UConn women's basketball star Paige Bueckers suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee on Monday and will miss the 2022-23 season, the school announced Wednesday.

Bueckers injured her knee in a pickup basketball game, according to the school's release, and an MRI later that evening confirmed the ACL tear. The release did not say where the junior guard from Hopkins, Minnesota, was playing when the injury occurred. It was the same knee she injured last year, causing her to miss significant time.

She will undergo surgery Friday at UConn Health in Farmington, Connecticut. An update on her recovery timetable will be made available after the procedure.

In a statement posted on her Instagram account, Bueckers said she is leaning on her faith to move forward.

«It's so so crazy because you work so hard to get back healthy, you feel stronger than ever, and you are playing your best basketball and with one sudden movement it all shifts,» Bueckers wrote. «It's hard trying to make sense of it all now but I can't help but think that God is using me as a testimony as to how much you can overcome with Him by your side. Some little kid that just tore their ACL or had a major surgery might need this story… because it's going to be one hell of a comeback.»

She added, «The prayers and love means so much to me and the doubts that I won't get back to where I was might mean even more. God put a dream in my heart and even if I have to walk through a nightmare to get it I'm going to keep believing.»

Bueckers was the 2020-21 consensus national player of the year, becoming the first freshman to earn that honor and helping UConn reach the women's Final Four. She averaged 20.1 points, 5.9 assists and 2.3 steals per game that