The Minnesota Lynx top draft pick, No. 9 selection Rennia Davis of Tennessee, is out indefinitely with a stress fracture in her left foot, which means the team may start the WNBA season May 14 with 10 players.
WNBA rosters can be as large as 12, but some teams opt to carry 11 players for salary-cap reasons. That's what the Lynx intend to do this season.
"When you're a team that has plans to only have 11 players, you now have 10 that are healthy until she can return," Lynx coach and general manager Cheryl Reeve said. "It's when you fall below that you have an opportunity to add to your roster through hardship (exceptions)."
Reeve said right now, the team also is without Napheesa Collier and Kayla McBride, who are still playing overseas.
Davis, a 6-foot-2 guard/forward, averaged 17.3 points and 8.8 rebounds as a senior for Tennessee. Reeve said Davis began to experience pain during the SEC tournament, in which Tennessee played two games. Davis continued to play in the NCAA tournament in which the Lady Vols lost to Michigan in the second round.
Davis had practiced with the Lynx just a few days in the past week before the injury was discovered through an MRI.
"This is a player who was trying to play, and then when she started to talk about soreness, we took action," Reeve said. "She's pretty disappointed, as you'd expect, and wants to be out there and learning. Silver lining in it is that while you are working through getting back, there's other things that you can work on."