{"id":59617,"date":"2025-08-10T17:36:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T17:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/59617\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T17:36:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T17:36:07","slug":"breanna-stewart-injury-update-liberty-star-says-its-a-non-negotiable-to-return-before-birthday-on-aug-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/59617\/","title":{"rendered":"Breanna Stewart injury update: Liberty star says it’s a ‘non-negotiable’ to return before birthday on Aug. 27"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Liberty<\/a> star Breanna Stewart<\/a>\u00a0is targeting a return to action by the end of August, she told reporters Sunday ahead of her team’s Finals rematch against the\u00a0Minnesota Lynx<\/a>. Stewart has been out since July 26 with a right knee bone bruise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I feel great. I just finished working out on the court in the back,” Stewart said<\/a>. “And it’s really just kind of giving my leg, the bone a little bit of time while we have it. But hoping to be back sooner than later and really just wanting to be back with my team.<\/p>\n

“I’m on the training staff to let me be back, to free me a little bit, but definitely before my birthday, that’s a non-negotiable. I have to be back before my birthday.”<\/p>\n

Stewart will turn 31 on Aug. 27, a timeline that would see her miss at least seven more games, including the final two Finals rematches with the Lynx and road games against the Las Vegas Aces<\/a> and Atlanta Dream<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stewart was injured minutes into the Liberty’s last-second loss to the Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> on July 26. She drove to the basket and went up for a contested layup that did not go down, and seemed fine as she made her way back down the court. Then, suddenly, she pulled up and asked for a sub. She checked out of the game and has not played since.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After undergoing imaging, Stewart was diagnosed with a bone bruise in her right knee. At the time, Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said the team would be cautious with their superstar forward and also pointed toward a return by late August.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We want to be smart with it,” Brondello said<\/a>\u00a0in late July. “If we can get her back at the end of August, I think that’s great. It’s big picture … so when she’s ready. But keep it fresh for the playoffs. I know she’ll be back before then. How early she gets back before the end of the [regular] season, I don’t know.”<\/p>\n

Stewart, who made her seventh All-Star appearance earlier this season, was averaging 18.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks before her injury.<\/p>\n

Including the game in which she was injured, the Liberty lost their first four outings without Stewart. Since then, however, they’ve won three in a row, thanks in large part to the arrival of former Finals MVP Emma Meesseman<\/a>. Entering Sunday, the Liberty are in second place at 20-10.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart\u00a0is targeting a return to action by the end of August, she told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[732,4657,49,48,12193,3460,632,736,3457,82,630],"class_list":["post-59617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-breanna-stewart","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-emma-meesseman","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-minnesota-lynx","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}