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The Seattle Storm have announced today that Lauren Jackson will miss the entire 2014 WNBA season after undergoing surgery on her right knee and left Achilles tendon on Monday.
This follows news on Monday night that she would miss at least four months while recovering from surgery.
"I'm so sad that I can't play this year in Seattle," said Jackson in the release. "This injury took me by surprise and I'm just coming to grips with the severity of it."
Given the initial timeline of the recovery reported, it wasn't immediately obvious that Jackson would miss the entire WNBA season but there were certainly competing priorities this year, as described by Jayda Evans of the Seattle Times.
Jackson's bigger goal is to captain her Australian team through the FIBA World Championship in Turkey this fall and compete in the 2016 Olympic Games.
In addition to Twitter, Jackson wrote an open letter to fans on her website, laurenjackson.org. The post elaborated on the injury, her play in China and thankfulness to be able to experience the last month of the Australian summer after experiencing minus-30-degree weather where she played in Harbin City.
It has been widely reported that the injury was career-threatening if not treated so the extended recovery time makes sense for Storm fans who hope to see Jackson at some point in the future. And all signs available right now point to Jackson coming back to the Storm at some point in the future, hopefully healthier.
"It is unfortunate that Lauren will not be part of our 15th anniversary season," said Storm President and CEO Karen Bryant in a release. "We support her efforts to rehab and return to 100 percent, but are also looking forward to a very exciting 2014 Storm season."
For more on the team, check out our 2013-14 Seattle Storm offseason storystream.
