As if losing Breanna Stewart and Maya Moore wasn't enough, it appears the WNBA will be without yet another star player for the 2019 season. Veteran Seattle Storm point guard Sue Bird will reportedly miss most, if not all, of the 2019 campaign with a knee injury.
Bird is expected to need eight to 10 weeks to recover from surgery on her knee, as reported by High Post Hoops' Arielle Chambers, but even after completing rehabilitation, the 11-time All-Star "may or may not return."
The news comes just over a month after Stewart, the reigning league MVP and Seattle's leading scorer during a 2018 championship run, suffered a torn Achilles tendon in an international game. Three months earlier, Moore announced she'd be sitting out the 2019 season for personal reasons.
Bird has battled knee issues for years, playing through them in 2012, undergoing season-ending surgery in 2013 and missing time at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She was also sidelined for all of 2017 WNBA training camp because of a separate knee surgery. And yet her loss remains a striking blow after the 38-year-old veteran won her third title in 2018, guiding the Storm as the league's oldest active player with 7.1 assists per game and the third best assist percentage in the WNBA.
The former No. 1 overall draft pick, who also served in the Denver Nuggets' front office this year, would hypothetically be available following rehabilitation in mid-July. The Storm, who also announced head coach Dan Hughes' cancer diagnosis this April, open their 2019 season on Saturday against the Phoenix Mercury.