On Wednesday, Sarah Strong revealed that she battled an Achilles injury all of last season.

“I'm not gonna say it didn't affect me at all when I felt it walking to class or when I was sleeping, it would just be there,” she said. “I felt it throughout my everyday life.”

Strong described the problem as a combination of soreness and pain that first cropped up while playing at the 3×3 World Cup with USA Basketball last June. It continued to linger throughout her entire sophomore season with the Huskies.

“When I was in Mongolia playing 3×3, that's when it really started to affect me,” she said. “But it just carried out throughout the season… Pretty much [stayed] the same, but close to the end, it probably got worse.”

Strong played in 38 of UConn’s 39 games, sitting out the team’s win over Butler on Feb. 7 to help mitigate what was then called calf tightness. In March, Geno Auriemma estimated that she only practiced three times throughout the month.

“The rest of the time, we were trying to keep that inflammation that she had in her leg to a minimum,” he said in May.

This summer, Strong declined all opportunities with USA Basketball and has not yet participated in the Huskies’ summer workouts as she works back to full health.

“My body needs it and I'm just trying to get healthier for next season,” she said. “I'm just doing rehab and extra stuff. I started individuals Monday, so I’m slowly getting back into it.”

At the moment, Strong doesn’t know when she’ll be 100 percent, though she hopes to get into a team workout “soon”.

Despite the nagging Achilles, Strong had a monster season in 2025-26. She was named the consensus National Player of the Year after putting up 18.4 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 3.4 steals and 1.6 blocks while owning a 58.2/40.4/83.3 shooting split. Strong did seem visibly hampered by the injury down the stretch, even if her numbers remained on par with her season-long averages.

Strong isn’t the only Husky working back from an injury. Blanca Quiñonez underwent surgery in May to repair a torn labrum in her left shoulder and will miss the entirety of the summer workouts. As of last week, she’s no longer wearing a sling but still has a long ways to go. Quiñonez doesn’t expect to be fully cleared until September or October.

“It’s getting better,” she said. “We’ll just take it day by day and see how it goes.

Quiñonez first injured the shoulder after she arrived at UConn — though she didn’t reveal exactly when — then re-aggravated it twice more during the season. She missed the Huskies’ first two games, then sat out another six contests in late January and early February.

Even when Quiñonez was on the floor, she never felt 100 percent.

“I just went on the court and tried to play and do my best, but the injury was there,” she said. “I feel like, more than pain, it was instability and being uncomfortable with it.”

Meanwhile, Morgan Cheli is fully cleared for basketball activities after missing all of last season due to injury. On Wednesday, she revealed that a stress fracture in her ankle forced her to go under the knife back in February of 2025.

“Given my situation with my ankle, that was the best route to go,” Cheli said. “I feel like that was the right decision.”

“It was an accumulation of different things, but it got to the point where I couldn't walk out of bed,” she added. “So I was like, ‘Something's not right.’”

Now that she’s back without any restrictions, Cheli is eager to make up for lost time.

“This has been a long journey and not what I expected,” she said. “But I just don't want to take anything for granted. So anytime I’m on the court, I give it my all.”

Dollar-denominated accounts — 401(k)s, IRAs, savings — are fully exposed to inflation, currency debasement, and government policy. Most financial advisors won't tell you that, because most of them don't profit when you know. Here's what's actually available to you:

Send me the free kit