Even after a long disappointing season filled with injuries, the Liberty are still dropping news of more ailments.
The latest injury news to come out was Leonie Fiebich’s rib fracture, which occurred in the first quarter of last week’s eventual Game 3 first-round elimination loss to the Phoenix Mercury. It was another blow in a postseason that featured an injured Breanna Stewart after a regular season filled with long status reports.
“And I felt like this year, especially in Game 3, when Leonie went down, it was like, of course she did,” Kolb said Thursday when speaking about the Liberty‘s perseverance in 2025 despite various injuries.
The team battled through Jonquel Jones’ (ankle) monthlong absence as well as Stewart’s (bone bruise) 13-game absence. Stewart got hurt again in Game 1 of the first-round series after suffering a sprained MCL.
Nyara Sabally missed significant time and other key players were sidelined due to injury in the regular season as well: Natasha Cloud, Sabrina Ionescu, Kennedy Burke and Isabelle Harrison.
“She was the one that hadn’t,” Kolb said of Fiebich. Visit Advertiser websiteGO TO PAGE
Fiebich apparently suffered the fracture just minutes into the game after Mercury star Kahleah Copper rose for a layup over Fiebich and inadvertently kneed the Liberty starter’s midsection.
Play continued after Copper missed the layup but later stopped as the ball went out of bounds. Fiebich stayed on the hardwood in pain before Cloud helped her off the floor.
The GM said she joined Fiebich in the training room as the star underwent X-rays.
Kolb recalled the forward telling him “I’m fine,” before receiving expected news from a team physician that Fiebich suffered a fracture.
As Kolb waited for the physician to inform him that Fiebich would be ruled out of Game 3, the GM noticed the forward back on the ESPN telecast.
“I’m waiting for the next sentence to be ‘and she’s out for the game,’ and I’m watching on TV, and Leo is checking into the basketball game, because that’s who she is,” Kolb said of Fiebich, who returned before the end of the first period and finished with three points in 28 minutes.
Kolb later added he has no health updates on Fiebich or other Liberty players who suffered injuries.
Leave a Reply