{"id":617318,"date":"2026-04-20T21:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T21:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/617318\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T21:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T21:02:10","slug":"storms-ezi-magbegor-to-miss-start-of-season-with-foot-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/617318\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm&#8217;s Ezi Magbegor to miss start of season with foot injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776718929_766_philippou_alexa.png&#038;h=80&#038;w=80&#038;scale=crop.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Alexa PhilippouApr 20, 2026, 03:56 PM ET<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"icon-font-after icon-close-solid-after\" href=\"#\">Close<\/a>Covers women&#8217;s college basketball and the WNBA<br \/>\nPreviously covered UConn and the WNBA Connecticut Sun for the Hartford Courant<br \/>\nStanford graduate and Baltimore native with further experience at the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and Cincinnati Enquirer<\/p>\n<p>Multiple Authors<\/p>\n<p><a data-clubhouse-guid=\"2da9bce5-382a-83d9-132c-b6c59d0e8eb9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/team\/_\/name\/sea\/seattle-storm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Seattle Storm<\/a> standout <a data-player-guid=\"1a2b36a5-ad9c-05f3-62fe-4a4b21a3cfc1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/player\/_\/id\/4420318\/ezi-magbegor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ezi Magbegor<\/a> will miss the beginning of the WNBA season due to a right foot injury that she suffered while playing for Australia in the FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifiers, the team announced Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The Storm said they will provide updates on her progress after six to eight weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Magbegor, 26, is a two-time Olympian for the Australian national team. The injury happened three games into the qualifying tournament in early March, and she missed the Opals&#8217; final two games of the event.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/story\/_\/id\/48509683\/ezi-magbegor-credits-aussie-wnba-pioneers-signing-mega-deal\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/r1644951_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/story\/_\/id\/48508230\/wnba-training-camp-2026-season-opener-preview-biggest-question-projected-lineups-stats\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/r1644949_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>1 Related<\/p>\n<p>Her absence is a big blow to Seattle, which lost its top five scorers from last season in free agency. The 6-foot-4 forward was the Storm&#8217;s top returning scorer (8.0 points per game), rebounder (6.2) and shot blocker (2.2).<\/p>\n<p>The four-time All-Defensive Team selection has played her entire WNBA career with Seattle, emerging as a starter in 2022. Her best campaign came in 2023, where she earned an All-Star bid and averaged 13.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists.<\/p>\n<p>Magbegor signed a three-year deal to return to the Storm last week after being core-designated in free agency &#8212; the WNBA&#8217;s equivalent to getting the NFL&#8217;s franchise tag.<\/p>\n<p>Seattle has entered a rebuilding mode, headlined by 2025 No. 2 pick <a data-player-guid=\"f21b6680-508f-39c7-91a2-fc38d8d247e7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/player\/_\/id\/5220150\/dominique-malonga\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dominique Malonga<\/a>, 2026 No. 3 pick <a data-player-guid=\"79194bb3-caeb-3af5-a503-9baa2b42b377\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/player\/_\/id\/5345325\/awa-fam\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Awa Fam<\/a> and former LSU star <a data-player-guid=\"1875dbcd-73f8-3c49-858b-6bab339c69fb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/player\/_\/id\/4698736\/flaujae-johnson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Flau&#8217;jae Johnson<\/a>, the 2026 No. 8 selection who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/story\/_\/id\/48480871\/valkyries-flip-lsu-flaujae-johnson-storm-stunner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">acquired in a draft-day trade<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexa PhilippouApr 20, 2026, 03:56 PM ET CloseCovers women&#8217;s college basketball and the WNBA Previously covered UConn and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-617318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617318","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=617318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}