Sophie Cunningham injury update: Fever guard to miss remainder of 2025 season with torn MCL

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham will miss the remainder of the season due to the right knee injury she sustained in Sunday's game against the Connecticut Sun, the team announced. Cunningham tore her MCL, per the Indianapolis Star's Chloe Peterson, and the organization said it expects her to make a full recovery.

The Fever signed guard Shey Peddy to a seven-day hardship contract in a corresponding move and released guard Kyra Lambert, who was also on a seven-day deal.

Cunningham had to be helped off the floor in the win over the Sun and underwent an MRI on Monday to determine the extent of the injury. She slid down the baseline to provide defensive help and collided with Sun guard Bria Hartley on the injury-causing play. Cunningham collapsed to the floor and grabbed her right knee in pain. Team medical staff then immediately tended to Cunningham and helped her to her feet and into the locker room.

"At the time, it's like, 'crap,' and then you go down there and see her and it's like OK, just want her to be able to calm down and be able to regroup, and then it turns to problem solving," Fever coach Stephanie White said of her instant reaction to the injury. "How do we put ourselves in a position to win? What do we need to do? I think that's how I survive."

Cunningham previously missed five games earlier in the season due to ankle injuries. When healthy, though, Cunningham was a key contributor as a part-time starter for the Fever in a strong debut campaign with her new team. She averaged 8.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.2 assists across 30 games and 13 starts and was a more prolific producer in the second half of the regular season before her injury.

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Brad Crawford

This season has been a disastrous one for the Fever from an injury perspective, and with a bevy of key players rotating in and out of the lineup with a variety of ailments, the team is on pace to finish well short of expectations in what could very well end up as a lost season. The Fever are just two and a half games clear of the playoff bubble, and Cunningham's season-ending injury comes at an inopportune time with the postseason race in full swing.

Aari McDonald is also out for the year with a broken foot and Sydney Colson will not return to the floor with a torn ACL. Caitlin Clark has also been limited to just 13 games this year and has not played since July 15. The second-year superstar sustained three separate soft tissue injuries and does not have a timeline for her return.