The news Fever fans dreaded has finally arrived. The MRI results confirm that Sophie Cunningham is out for the season, marking the third key player lost to injury. What began as a season full of hope and high expectations has spiraled into pain and disappointment. With their enforcer sidelined, the Fever will have to push through–but Cunningham insists this outcome is actually the best-case scenario for her.

This past Sunday, the Fever faced the Connecticut Sun with a clear plan: keep winning until Caitlin Clark returns and build momentum for the playoffs. But in the second quarter, things changed. Sophie Cunningham left the court clutching her knee after Bria Hartley awkwardly fell on it. Just two days later, the franchise confirmed that Cunningham would miss the rest of the season due to a knee injury, though the exact details weren’t revealed. That came from the Fever guard herself on her Show Me Something podcast.

Opening up about the injury, Cunningham admitted: “I did tear my MCL. And if you’re going to hurt your knee, that is like the best possible case. And so, you know, this year just as a whole, like I think the league as a whole, but really us, we’ve just gone through so much adversity. And then injury-wise, it’s just like you can’t make this up, to be honest.”

Right after the incident, we saw Dr. Brian Sutterer listing three possible scenarios for Cunningham’s injury, one being an MCL tear. While it’s still unclear whether surgery will be needed, MCL injuries are generally recoverable. Take Stephen Curry, for example–he dealt with MCL issues early in his career, and it didn’t stop him from becoming one of the greatest shooters of our generation. The Fever also have experience with players bouncing back from MCL injuries: Damiris Dantas spent four months recovering last year, and Natasha Howard, during her Liberty days, returned after just five weeks from an MCL strain.

But what’s odd isn’t the growing injury list itself, but the pattern behind it.

“But you want to know what’s actually crazy though, is that Sydney—yeah, Sydney had her birthday. The next day we played, she completely tore her ACL and everything. It was my birthday. We played the next day, and then I hurt my knee. And we still have a couple more birthdays on our team, and everyone’s like, ‘Do they play or do they not play?'” Cunningham explained on the podcast.

It’s worth noting that Sydney Colson celebrated her 36th birthday on August 6th, only to get injured shortly after. The same “birthday curse” struck Sophie Cunningham, who turned 29 on August 16th and got hurt the very next day. Cunningham explains that this streak has other players nervous, too. Teammates like Natasha Howard, Lexie Hull, and Makayla Timpson all have birthdays in September, and after seeing what happened, it’s easy to understand why none of them want to step on the court right after their special day!

That said, the Fever showed serious grit, coming back from a 21-point deficit to beat the Sun–powered by Kelsey Mitchell’s career-high 38-point explosion. Coach White was quick to applaud the team’s mindset, especially given they were playing without Sophie Cunningham.

Stephanie White praises Fever in the comeback win after Sophie Cunningham’s injury

Cunningham had been a force for the Fever, averaging 8.6 points and 3.5 rebounds per game while shooting a career-best 46.9% from the field and 43.2% from beyond the arc. Her energy was unmatched, and she often became the team’s key player off the bench, starting 13 of the 30 games. It was tough to go on without their next best sharpshooter, but their determination to fight back didn’t go unnoticed.

“First and foremost, they’re good human beings,” she said. “They’re selfless, they’re tough, they don’t care who gets the credit, they don’t care whose day it is. They got something inside of them that you just can’t teach. And they bring it out of each other and it allows us to go through these incredibly tough times that we’re going through and always gives us a chance. I’m just so incredibly proud of them for continuing to believe, for continuing to pull together, for continuing to step up.”

Can the selfless Indiana Fever keep punching above their weight with just 9 regular-season games left? The playoffs are still within reach, and given everything that’s happened this season, securing a berth is applause-worthy enough. But will the team sustain the resilience?