Aaliyah Edwards to miss Sparks clash amid facial injury

The Connecticut Sun have the unenviable distinction of being the worst team in the WNBA right now amid their 1-8 start to the regular season. To add insult to injury, Aaliyah Edwards, one of the Sun’s more promising young players, has been ruled out for the team’s Saturday home game against the Los Angeles Sparks.

Aaliyah Edwards suffered a nose injury when she took a hit to the face during the Sun’s loss to the Portland Fire on Thursday. She left the game and was unable to return. Due to the nature of the injury, Edwards was placed into WNBA concussion protocol and will need to sit for the Sun’s game against the Sparks.

She only played a little over four minutes against the Fire, not taking a single shot and finishing with two rebounds before exiting.

The No. 6 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, Edwards is in her first full season with the Sun after being acquired in a deadline trade last season from the Washington Mystics. She’s only in her third season in the league and still has the potential to continue to get better.

Edwards missed the first three games of the season for the Sun while dealing with a thigh injury. She made her 2026 season debut on May 15 against the Las Vegas Aces. So far, she’s been averaging 8.0 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.2 steals with splits of 50 percent shooting from the field and 66.7 percent shooting from the free-throw line as one of the Sun’s starting forwards.

She had a string of three consecutive games scoring in double figures from May 18-22 with 12, 12 and 10 points respectively. The former UConn star had her contract option for the 2027 picked up by the Sun right before the start of this year.