DURHAM, NC – JANUARY 18: Virginia Tech Hokies guard Georgia Amoore 5 covers her face after a hard foul during the college basketball game between the Duke Blue Devils and the Virginia Tech Hokies on January 18, 2024 at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, NC. Photo by Nicholas Faulkner/Icon Sportswire COLLEGE BASKETBALL: JAN 18 Women s – Virginia Tech at Duke EDITORIAL USE ONLY Icon24011827 ©IMAGO/Icon Sportswire Harshita Saxena · EssentiallySports Sun, November 8, 2026 at 4:16 AM UTC · 5 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WNBA star Georgia Amoore's rookie season was over before it really started. On the third day of training camp in April 2025, the Washington Mystics guard tore the ACL in her right knee, just days before her first game in a Mystics jersey. The year that followed tested her body, but it also tested her mind. Now that she is back, she is finally talking about the part nobody could see.
"There's obviously a lot of anxiety that comes post-injury," Georgia Amoore said per an Instagram post by WNBL .
"It could be performance-wise, it could be, 'Am I ever gonna feel like me again?' It could be, 'Oh, I don't wanna get injured again.' Like, there's a lot of things that can just creep into your mind, and it's very normal. I think, people don't talk about it enough when they come back from injury just how messed up it can be mentally…" she added.
Washington drafted her sixth overall after a standout five-year college career at Virginia Tech and Kentucky. She missed only one game in college, and in her last season at Kentucky, she averaged 19.6 points and 6.9 assists. Then came a Tuesday practice, and the injury.
Beyond the physical comeback, discover what's really weighing on this WNBA star as she navigates recovery and mental resilience. Subscribe for the full story.
The team gave no timeline at first, and she missed the entire 2025 season. She later admitted she feared her career might be over before it started. Soon after, the people who matter in the organization told her she could rehab and that they were behind her, and that helped.
So she got to work. She stayed in Washington instead, rehabbing and working out in mostly empty gyms with the team's performance staff. That effort earned her medical clearance and the starting point guard job.
In her WNBA regular season debut, she shot 2-of-9 and had five turnovers to go with six points. In May, she averaged 6.3 points and 2.7 turnovers while shooting 26.7%. Later, in June, she left a game against the Portland Fire with right knee soreness and was ruled out at halftime.
By August, she had scored three points over five games, including four scoreless outings, and people began asking whether the Mystics should keep starting her.
Then something clicked. It came about 16 months after the injury and 35 games into her rookie season. In late August, she made three 3-pointers in three straight games, then hit six 3s on her way to 25 points against the Mercury, both career highs.
After the All-Star break, her 3-point shooting jumped from 28.3% to 41.1%, and Washington went a league-best 11-4. The Mystics clinched their first playoff spot since 2023 before Atlanta swept them in the first round.
Georgia Amoore is not the only star to talk about this side of injuries. Caitlin Clark played just 13 games in 2025 because of injuries. This May, she even spoke up about it.
"I think the hardest part of injury, something I'm still really battling and almost struggling with, is just the mental hump of getting over everything."
She added that she needs to have "a little grace" with herself.
Paige Bueckers shared something similar on Sue Bird's podcast, almost four years after her own ACL tear.
"I just felt so isolated and alone," Bueckers said, adding, "I lost my identity."
She also said the experience still shapes her game. Part of why she attacks the rim less, she explained, is "the trauma of playing in crowded areas, having to land on one leg." Even as a 20.9-point scorer, she takes only 3.6 free throws a game.
Their stories point to a bigger problem in the league. The WNBA had more than 200 reported injuries last year, and teams such as Dallas and Indiana leaned on emergency signings to get by. Former Fever player Layshia Clarendon, who spent 13 seasons in the league, said the body remembers the trauma of an injury, and that the mental toll is something fans rarely see.
Experts say women face a higher risk to begin with. The good news is that prevention works. A 2005 study found a 10- to 15-minute warm-up program cut ACL injuries by 88% among teenage female soccer players.
Recovery has changed too. Rehab once ended after six months, but it now lasts a year or more, because the risk of reinjury is high between six and 12 months.
The league is trying to catch up. The new CBA requires 12 players and two developmental players on every roster, plus bigger medical staffs. Clarendon says facilities are still behind. The Chicago Sky are opening a new training center before the 2027 camp, and the Fever have a performance center coming in the spring.
For Georgia Amoore, the lesson sounds simple, and she admits it sounds cliche.
But her story, along with those of Clark and Bueckers, shows how much work sits behind those words, and how the hardest part of an injury can begin after the knee has healed.
Chiefs Announce Triple Injury Setback Ahead of Jets Clash
ACC Football Program Hit With Injury Crisis as 14 Players Ruled Out for Week 10 Rivalry Game
'Mindless Act of Criminal Damage': Golf Course Faces Lengthy Recovery After Vandalism
LeBron James' Awful Night in Cleveland, Trae Young Gets Booed, Cavs Lose $20K & More From NBA Cup Games (6th Nov)
"Remember When You Didn't Draft Me": Josh Allen Admits Taking Shots at John Elway Over Broncos NFL Draft Snub
The post "Lot Of Anxiety": WNBA Star Opens Up About Mental Health While Addressing Her Return From Season-Ending Injury appeared first on EssentiallySports . Add EssentiallySports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: Sports
