{"id":819443,"date":"2026-07-22T21:34:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T21:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/819443\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T21:34:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T21:34:18","slug":"inside-wnba-star-napheesa-colliers-recovery-before-her-return-to-the-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/819443\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside WNBA Star Napheesa Collier\u2019s Recovery Before Her Return to the Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Estimated4 min read<\/p>\n

Five-time WNBA All-Star Napheesa Collier<\/a> has spent the better part of the year in recovery. Last season, she injured both ankles. Early this year, she had surgery on each of them.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, on the court, her Minnesota Lynx are dominating, coming in at the top of the league with an impressive 21-6 record. \u201cI’m so proud of them,\u201d Napheesa tells Women\u2019s Health. And, while she would rather have been playing this whole time, watching it all come together\u2014including for rookie Olivia Miles\u2014was still a bright spot amid the long days of recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been really fun to watch\u2014just to see the chemistry and the joy that they play with,\u201d she says. \u201cI think we’ve exceeded everyone’s expectations, which is always fun too.\u201d<\/p>\n

That all may change tonight, as the team captain was listed as probable to play against the Seattle Storm<\/a>. As for how she\u2019s feeling? \u201cI’ve never had surgeries like this before, so I don’t think I’m going to feel back to myself 100 percent when I step back on the court,\u201d she says. But she\u2019s been giving everything to her recovery, and trusts that it\u2019ll all come back to her. \u201cI think the flow of the game will come naturally,\u201d she says. \u201cI played it for so many years, I think that always comes back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though she\u2019s been on the sidelines for a while, that doesn\u2019t mean she hasn\u2019t been busy. A normal day for Phee has looked like arriving at the gym two hours early for treatment, rehab, and lifting\u2014and then heading to practice. Afterwards, she\u2019d do even more treatment on her ankles before heading home for a nap and then picking up her daughter from school. In the process, Phee has learned a lot about recovery and comebacks. Here\u2019s what went into hers.<\/p>\n

Phee Has a Tailored Supplement Stack<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of what led her to partner with NSF Certified for Sport supplement brand Thorne. \u201cAs an athlete, your health and wellness is foundational to who you are,\u201d she says. What she puts into her body is critical to that.<\/p>\n

Shop Phee\u2019s Stack\"Chevron\"Chevron\"Vitamin<\/a>\"Vitamin<\/a>Vitamin C with Flavonoids\"Super<\/a>\"Creatine\"<\/a>\"Collagen<\/a><\/p>\n

For Phee, supplements are about optimization. They\u2019re not a replacement for nailing recovery efforts like sleep<\/a> or eating enough protein<\/a>, but they can make an impact. \u201cAnything that you can do to push yourself over the edge even a little bit is worth it and it goes a long way,\u201d she says. \u201cThat may be the difference in the fourth quarter where you can run a little bit faster or jump a little bit higher than the other person because you’re more recovered or whatever it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the supplements that have helped move the needle for her: Phee takes vitamin D<\/a>, vitamin C<\/a>, omega-3<\/a>, and a multivitamin<\/a>. Her latest additions are collagen<\/a> and creatine<\/a>\u2014both of which she added ahead of surgery.<\/p>\n

She Also Takes Advantage of High-Tech Healing<\/p>\n

Phee makes good use of the Lynx\u2019s red light<\/a> bed and hyperbaric chamber, which she says made a big difference in her recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve actually really, really noticed a difference with red light,\u201d she says, despite being skeptical at first. Now, she uses it for about 20 minutes pretty much every day. \u201cYou have to be consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n

She Doesn\u2019t Rush the Process<\/p>\n

As she works to get off the injury report, Phee and her team of trainers, coaches, and doctors have been careful about making decisions surrounding her return. \u201cYou don’t want to rush that,\u201d she says. \u201cYou want to make sure that you’re coming back 100 percent healthy and just crushing the rehab.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an athlete, she really wants to get back on the court, but she\u2019s trying to maintain perspective: These months have felt long, but they\u2019re a blip over the course of her career. It\u2019s one of the most important lessons she\u2019s learned about comebacks throughout the process. \u201cIt feels huge now,\u201d she says. \u201cI’m thinking about games I’ve missed and I want to be with my teammates, but when you put it into perspective of my entire career and how many more years I have left, making sure that I’m good now makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plus, while recovery has been a major part of her life, it\u2019s not the only thing she\u2019s got going on. For example, Phee is a co-founder of Unrivaled<\/a>, which she led through the WNBA off-season.<\/p>\n

Her 4-year-old daughter, Mila, helps her maintain perspective, too. \u201cShe just gives me such a purpose and really puts everything into perspective,\u201d Phee says. \u201cOf course, going through injury and not being able to play is really hard mentally, but she doesn’t care if I never step on the court again. I’m Mama to her\u2014I’m not a basketball player.\u201d<\/p>\n

She calls Mila her \u201cmental reset\u201d from everything she\u2019s focused on at work. \u201cI feel like everyone says this, but the beauty that kids see in the world is so different from how we do. Everything is beautiful through her eyes, so it’s just really fun to experience that with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Olivia Luppino is an associate editor at Women\u2019s Health. She spends most of her time interviewing expert sources about the latest fitness trends, nutrition tips, and practical advice for living a healthier life. Olivia previously wrote for New York Magazine\u2019s The Cut, PS (formerly POPSUGAR), and Salon, where she also did on-camera interviews with celebrity guests. She recently ran the New York City Marathon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"4 min read Five-time WNBA All-Star Napheesa Collier has spent the better part of the year in recovery.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,200411,2910,287104,784,787,237154,1642,195851,287103,273948,82,630],"class_list":["post-819443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-collection-sports-athletes","tag-content-type-feature","tag-contentid-210b0e83-fcdc-47ed-8a0a-54f847d90836","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-hasproduct-true","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-read_time-5","tag-shorttitle-napheesa-collier-on-her-recovery-and-wnba-return","tag-sponsored-false","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819443","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=819443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}