Photo credit: Kevin Sousa
The Toronto Tempo’s injury-plagued season has come to a head.
Brittney Sykes and Aneesah Morrow will both miss the remainder of the season, the Tempo announced on Sunday.
Sykes and Morrow both left Friday’s game against the Portland Fire with foot and knee injuries, respectively.
A top-five scorer in the WNBA before sustaining a previous left foot injury in June, Sykes was playing just her second game after missing 18 straight with plantar fasciitis. However, Sykes did not reaggravate the original injury, instead sustaining a new injury to the same foot, Sandy Brondello told reporters before Toronto’s game against the Las Vegas Aces in Vancouver on Sunday.
Neither player needs surgery, and both are expected to make a full recovery, but not before the end of the regular season.
Slim averaged a career-high 18.6 points, adding 3.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.2 steals over 17 games this year, ultimately missing over half of the Tempo’s inaugural season.
Morrow, 23, was acquired in a deadline trade with the Connecticut Sun in exchange for a 2028 second-round pick and the rights to Russian forward Maria Kliundikova, and was averaging 9.9 points and 6.3 rebounds over seven games with the Tempo, including a franchise-record 16 rebounds in her first game in Toronto against the Indiana Fever on Tuesday. The sophomore forward averaged 11 points and 8.3 rebounds in 27 games split between the Tempo and Sun.
The Tempo had only seven regulars available for Sunday’s game against the Aces, and one development player — Ornella Bankole.
However, despite being severely shorthanded, the Tempo are currently ineligible for a hardship-exception player, Brondello said.
Brondello also added that All-Star guard Marina Mabrey will be reevaluated in a few weeks and could potentially miss the rest of the season, too.