{"id":807113,"date":"2026-07-18T00:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T00:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/807113\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T00:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T00:00:14","slug":"magbegor-suffers-facial-fracture-as-world-cup-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/807113\/","title":{"rendered":"Magbegor suffers facial fracture as World Cup looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian Opals<\/a> centre Ezi Magbegor\u2019<\/a>s 2026 FIBA World Cup preparation has been dealt another \u2013 literal \u2013 blow.<\/p>\n

Magbegor, 26, suffered a facial fracture fighting for a rebound in Seattle\u2019s 89-78 loss to Opals\u2019 teammate Isobel Borlase<\/a>\u2019s Atlanta Dream last week. She was playing just her fifth game back after sitting out the first 20 games of the WNBA season because of a foot injury.<\/p>\n

The Australian Opals play their first game of the World Cup against Puerto Rico on September 4 \u2013 48 days from now.<\/p>\n

Magbegor copped an accidental elbow in the face from Dream centre Madina Okot in the second quarter. She\u2019d played eight minutes, still on a minutes restriction.<\/p>\n

“Ezi got hit in the face. We don’t have an update now, but we’re evaluating her,” Storm head coach Sonia Raman said in the post-game press conference.<\/p>\n

Magbegor was one of 10 players on 10 different teams to receive the WNBA\u2019s maximum salary<\/a>, signing a three-year contract with the Seattle Storm<\/a> worth USD $3.75 million (approximately AUD $5.2 million) ahead of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s been a season of frustration for the Melbourne-born 1.93m Olympic Games bronze medallist (2024). She injured her right foot while playing for Australia at the 2026 FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament in Turkey in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I just realised how much I missed playing,\u201d<\/a> Magbegor said after her first game back against Sami Whitcomb\u2019s Phoenix Mercury on July 3, 2026 (AEDT).<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we’ve done such a great job of just building what we have with this team, so it was just nice to be on the floor and be healthy again, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Storm, riddled with injuries, are 6-20 in 2026, and Raman was optimistic about Magbegor, French star Dominique Malonga and Opals point guard Jade Melbourne <\/a>finally getting an opportunity to play together.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s been so few games, so it’s just a matter of kind of the same way that we started the season, where we didn’t really have anybody that was used to playing with each other,\u201d Raman added.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe Jade and (Stefanie Dolson) coming from Washington together and Jade and Ezi maybe from Australia, but it took a while for that group to find some chemistry, get the cohesion, be connected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would expect the same thing. Ezi\u2019s new to this group now in terms of this group, obviously not new to the Storm, but there’s a lot of people on the floor that she hasn’t played with much or at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s just a matter of the chemistry, the reps and just getting connected.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in terms of her skill set, she’s a seamless fit. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s more just knowing: is someone going to sneak, are they going to roll, what are all the different things you can do in different actions, and just getting on the same page.”<\/p>\n

For both Raman and Magbegor, it\u2019s back to a wait game \u2013 along with Australian Opals head coach Sandy Brondello<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No timetable for Magbegor\u2019s return has been given.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian Opals centre Ezi Magbegor\u2019s 2026 FIBA World Cup preparation has been dealt another \u2013 literal \u2013 blow.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-807113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}