On July 6, Skylar Diggins aired out her frustration on social media after getting benched. The WNBA veteran had started all 19 games for the Sky and felt blindsided by the decision. Yet, wouldn’t even get the chance to come off the bench the following day, as she appeared on the injury list right before the game with the Phoenix Mercury. Now, after missing three consecutive games, coach Tyler Marsh has shared a not-so-optimistic update.

“We’re still having those conversations, but we want her to be back when she’s completely healthy,” Marsh said, as shared by the Chicago State of Mind Sports page on X. “She and our medical team will know when it’s time for her to be back and then we’ll get her back in the lineup.”

Diggins initially appeared on the list with a right-knee injury, and since then there has been no concrete update on how severe the injury is.

The original decision to move Diggins to the bench was simply an attempt to try something different. With Vandersloot returning from injury, Marsh tried to switch things up as the losses kept mounting despite Diggins doing well as a starter.

Ironically, the Phoenix Mercury game Skylar Diggins ultimately missed because of her knee injury ended in a win for Chicago. However, that turnaround didn’t hold as the two games that followed both ended in defeats against the Los Angeles Sparks and the Dallas Wings.

Ahead of her injury, Diggins was putting up respectable numbers for the struggling Chicago Sky. When veterans like Vandersloot were still recovering, and Rickea Jackson was ruled out for the rest of the season after tearing her ACL, Diggins was doing a lot of the heavy lifting as a starter.

She was averaging 14.2 points and leading the team with 4.9 assists per game. Diggins was also shooting an impressive 77.5% from the three-point line. So, she would have been a valuable piece in the Sky’s rotation even if she was coming off the bench.

Her absence from the lineup has once again put the Sky in the same spot they were before Vandersloot returned. With a 7-16 record and sitting 13th in the combined league standings, Chicago is virtually out of the playoff race.

The next game against the Seattle Storm feels like a must-win for the Chicago Sky if they want to salvage what’s left of the season. However, while Diggins may be out due to an injury, there’s more at play when considering the bigger picture.

Skylar Diggins’ Time on the Sidelines May Reflect More Than Just a Physical Setback

Before the out-of-the-blue knee injury, it already seemed there was some friction between Diggins and the team. “Now I’m coming off the bench?????? Cool,” Diggins initially wrote on Instagram on July 6.

She also made her displeasure known when speaking to reporters later in the day. “That’s my boss. Even if I don’t like decisions, I have to be a pro and go with whatever he thinks.”

“I’ve been sacrificing my body for this team,” she said after the team’s practice. “Maybe it’s time to take a step back and see what’s going on. To see if I need to continue to make those sacrifices without having the proper resources to play at an elite level.”

Coach Marsh initially refused to elaborate on the decision, saying the discussion would stay between him and Diggins. In fact, this wasn’t the first time Diggins had put coach Marsh in the hot seat.

“We gotta have more maturity and more leadership on and off the floor. If it was just versus one team, I’d understand that, but now it’s been struggles. That’s a trend of ours,” the WNBA veteran said when the Chicago Sky were sitting at 4-7 in early June.

However, with no real timeline on when she’s coming back, we’ll have to wait and see how Skylar Diggins actually performs off the bench, and whether it will be too late to matter for their campaign by the time she steps back on the court.