What's Going on With Sabrina Ionescu?

The New York Liberty have championship aspirations, but they should be pleased they’re 5-4 to start the 2026 WNBA season.

Those two sentiments seem to be in direct conflict with each other - until they’re contextualized with the Liberty’s injury picture.

The Liberty entered the season as the odds-on favorites to win the title because of All-Star point guard Sabrina Ionescu, two-time WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart, and 2021 WNBA MVP Jonquel Jones, the “Big 3” that captured the franchise’s first championship in 2024, and All-Star forward Satou Sabally, who signed during free agency last month. Those four players have only played one game together so far.

Sabally missed the first four games with a cyst and has recently been dealing with an undisclosed illness.

The more pressing issue is Ionescu, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2020 WNBA Draft. Ionescu rolled her ankle and suffered a left foot injury in the Liberty’s final preseason game on May 3, so she missed the team’s first five games. Her season debut came in a loss against the Dallas Wings last Sunday. She hasn’t played in the two games since.

Ionescu missed the Liberty’s loss to the Portland Fire on Monday, which was more or less a planned absence, as Ionescu was working back from injury, and it was a back-to-back. The concern now is that Ionescu was ruled out for Friday’s win against the Phoenix Mercury with a new injury designation: back soreness.

At Friday’s shootaround before the game, first-year Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco was predictably peppered with questions about Ionescu’s injury status. According to Fiifi Frimpong, DeMarco characterized Ionescu as “sore” and “day-to-day.”

“It’s something that’s been bothering her a little bit,” he said. “But I don’t know if it was a tweak or what happened. Just know she’s working to get back to the next one.”

It is entirely too early in the season to sound the alarms, but it is something to monitor as the Liberty finish out their home stand against the Toronto Tempo on Wednesday, June 3, and the Indiana Fever on Saturday, June 6.

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This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 6:49 PM.