Bueckers out 6-8 weeks with shin fracture
UConn’s Paige Bueckers is expected to sit out the next six to eight weeks with a tibial plateau fracture, the school’s athletic department announced Tuesday morning.
Bueckers took a fall in the final minute of Sunday’s game against Notre Dame. An MRI and a CT scan confirmed the sophomore’s injury.
“Obviously, we’re all extremely disappointed for Paige and that she suffered this injury,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said in Tuesday’s release.
“It would be really hard to describe how much basketball means to Paige and how much her teammates mean to her. Not being able to do the thing that she loves to do, to be there for her teammates, is really difficult for her.”
Bueckers has paced UConn by averaging 21.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 6.2 assists in 36.3 minutes per game. She leads the team in every category except rebounds, in which she is second.
“We’ve had players get injured in the past and my philosophy here is, I’m not interested in how fast we can get someone back; I’m interested in what’s best for them long term,” Auriemma said. “Every decision made will prioritize what’s best for Paige and her career. Everyone involved with this program will be there to support Paige through her heal
What is a tibial plateau fracture?
A tibial plateau fracture can occur when the shin bone — the tibia — meets the knee and/or the end of the femur bone in a forceful manner. The flat top end of the tibia is called the tibial plateau and it carries the bulk of the weight of the femur on top of it through various ligaments, like the anterior cruciate, or ACL, and cartilage, like the meniscus.
“Typically these happen when you have the femur bone, which is the bone at the top of the knee, driving into the tibia bone, which is the bone at the bottom of the knee,” Jordan Gruskay, an orthopedic sports medicine surgeon at the Connecticut Orthopedic Institute told Hearst Connecticut Media on Tuesday. “Fractures require a certain level of force and torque and typically we see patients either tear the ligaments first, like an ACL injury, or they just get bruising of the bone rather than an actual broken bone.”
However, what makes Bueckers’ case rare is that these types of fractures usually occur during trauma to the knee. Dr. Sabrina Strickland, a sports medicine surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York and Stamford, said she sees this fracture commonly in football players and skiers.
Since Bueckers was not in contact with another player when she went down with the injury, it’s likely the fracture was caused when she hyperextended her left knee during her fall.
“It’s basically, she’s breaking her leg with just running which is pretty uncommon,” Strickland said. “Typically, a broken bone, which is what a tibia plateau fracture is, is typically from some kind of trauma, like real trauma, not running on a basketball court and hyperextending your knee . ... Her knee hyperextended and then it looked like it, at least from the video, looked like it buckled and that force right there was too much for her bone and broke the bone.”
While the sophomore will still be out six to eight weeks, the diagnosis may be a best-case scenario. Initially, from the video of the fall, doctors speculated Bueckers might have torn her ACL, which would have been season-ending and required surgery. With a tibia plateau fracture, not only will Bueckers likely not need surgery but doctors says she will also likely have no long-term lasting effects to her knee.
“(It’s) much better than having an ACL tear or a meniscus tear because this basically should heal
back to normal,” said Dr. Richard Diana, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in arthroscopic knee and shoulder surgery at Connecticut Orthopaedics. “So she should have no lack of integrity at all. It shouldn’t be 95 percent as good as normal, it should be as good as normal.”
Recovery timetable
In terms of recovery, Bueckers will be out six to eight weeks from any contact or weight-bearing activities to allow the bone to heal itself. Bueckers’ timeline for when she’ll make her return to the court will depend on the severity of her fracture.
“Typically bone takes six weeks to heal,” Gruskay said. “I would assume that they will have her being nonweight bearing or limited weight bearing for a period of four to six weeks. I’m sure their hope is that the bone completely heals and then they can have her start rehabbing, getting back to playing once that bone is healed.
“I think the eight weeks is hopeful. Sometimes and obviously
younger patients who get these can heal faster and have access to better rehabs so the eight weeks is certainly a hopeful return to sport timeline.”
Strickland said the eight week timeline released by UConn’s statement on Tuesday would likely entail Bueckers recovering by wearing a brace and on crutches.
“It must not be a particularly bad tibia plateau fracture because saying a tibia plateau fracture could mean that you get two plates and 20 screws or it could be that you’re just in a brace,” she said.
The 5-foot-11 guard fell to the floor with 38.5 seconds left in the game at Gampel Pavilion on Sunday.
She was dribbling up court when it appeared her left leg hyperextended and buckled out from under her in the middle of a jab-step. She fell to her hands, but quickly got up. Bueckers then grabbed hold of the ball and took a few steps before collapsing in front of the UConn bench.
“It’s kind of odd that someone
would get tibial plateau fracture from something as innocuous as what she was doing,” Diana said. “It didn’t look like she was putting that much pressure, she just must have hit it the wrong way. ... So, it’s a little unusual but hopefully it’s just an odd thing that happened once and hopefully it doesn’t happen again.”
Last year’s player of the year laid on the floor in visible pain with her team surrounding her. Evina Westbrook and Amari DeBerry carried Bueckers, who was unable to get up on her own, to the bench. She was looked at by trainers while the game ended and then assisted off the bench, through the handshake line with Notre Dame and into the locker room.
An eight-week time frame would keep Bueckers out for 15 to 16 games, returning in early February.
UConn began this season with a deep roster. But less than two months in, that depth has quickly dwindled.
First, junior Aubrey Griffin suffered a high ankle sprain.
Then Saylor Poffenbarger transferred. Next Azzi Fudd went out for two weeks with an ongoing foot injury (she wore a boot on her right foot during Friday’s game at Seton Hall). Then Griffin’s ongoing back injury resurfaced forcing her to go even longer without making her season debut.
Auriemma has gone from a team of 14 to a team of 10 available players — 11 if Griffin makes a return. He has one backup guard for the foreseeable future until Fudd comes back, which is at least another week away.
UConn will play its first game without Bueckers on Thursday at Georgia Tech (7 p.m.) before facing UCLA on Saturday (1 p.m.) at the Never Forget Tribute Classic in Newark.
The last time UConn played without Bueckers was against Georgetown on Jan. 23. Olivia Nelson-Ododa led the Huskies to the 72-41 win with 19 points and nine rebounds.