{"id":968890,"date":"2026-07-30T11:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/968890\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T11:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:07:14","slug":"chicago-sky-dijonai-carrington-prepares-for-long-awaited-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/968890\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Sky: DiJonai Carrington prepares for long-awaited debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most of the 2026 WNBA season has been a waiting game for DiJonai Carrington. But after more than three months on the sidelines, the guard is finally ready to make her debut for the Chicago Sky.<\/p>\n

Carrington returned to full practice with the Sky this week after missing the first 27 games of the season with a left foot sprain, an injury she carried into free agency from last season. The guard classified herself as a game-day decision for now, which means she could make her debut as soon as Thursday\u2019s game against the Connecticut Sun.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot about myself and my resiliency,\u201d Carrington said. \u201cI\u2019m just proud of myself. I went through a lot over this last year and to be close to getting back out on the floor is really \u2014 it\u2019s kind of surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

After suffering the sprain during the 2025 playoffs, Carrington underwent an initial surgery last October followed by a secondary procedure to remove hardware from her foot in April. The ensuing three-month rehabilitation window timed Carrington\u2019s return for after the All-Star break.<\/p>\n

The Sky host a five-game stretch of home games out of All-Star weekend, which offers the ideal runway for an injured player to reintegrate into play. And the week-long break between games allowed the guard to finally scrimmage full court with her teammates, checking one of the final boxes necessary before a return to the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously when they\u2019re playing games every other day, I\u2019m not going to be like, \u2018All right I need nine of y\u2019all to come play five-on-five full court with me after practice,\u201d Carrington said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\"MinnesotaMinnesota Lynx guard DiJonai Carrington (left) and forward Napheesa Collier are out for Game 4 of a WNBA basketball playoff semifinals series against the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo\/Samantha Chow)<\/p>\n

Carrington\u2019s recovery process was complicated by the Sky\u2019s lack of a singular training site. Despite previous promises from ownership, the Sky\u2019s new training facility in Bedford Park<\/a> will not be operational for the team to utilize this season. In the interim, the team has patched together training sessions at UIC, Loyola and Wintrust Arena with varying access to rehabilitation resources.<\/p>\n

While the Sky never provided a firm move-in date for the training facility, Carrington said she never expected the delays to last this long \u2014 and certainly not to stretch for the entirety of the season. As a one-year signing, Carrington will have returned to free agency before the facility will be available to players. Carrington acknowledged that the lack of a training facility made her recovery process \u201ctough\u201d but also refused to lean on that obstacle any further.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t use that as an excuse,\u201d Carrington said. \u201cNobody cares. Honestly, I wouldn\u2019t care if it was happening to somebody else on another team. Nobody cares. You just have to show up, figure it out, find a way to do the things that you need to do. It hasn\u2019t been ideal but that\u2019s how life goes sometimes, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sky signed Carrington to that one-year deal with an understanding that she wouldn\u2019t be available<\/a> until the latter half of the season \u2014 definitely not until after the All-Star break and potentially not until late August or September. While the guard\u2019s recovery has followed the more optimistic projection for her return date, it will still be a challenge for coach Tyler Marsh to accomplish another midseason reintegration of a potential starter.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t new for Marsh. The Sky started the year with three star players fully sidelined by injury: Carrington, guard Courtney Vandersloot and forward Azur\u00e1 Stevens. Stevens returned to the court in May and Vandersloot returned in June.<\/p>\n

Vandersloot\u2019s return created particular upheaval in the Sky roster when the long-time guard returned to the starting lineup, pushing Skylar Diggins into a secondary role. Diggins has not returned to the court since she was moved out of the starting lineup due to a knee injury. Now, Carrington joins this cluttered backcourt group as the Sky attempt to salvage the latter half of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an adjustment, but it\u2019s an adjustment that we\u2019ve had to face multiple times this year,\u201d Marsh said. \u201cIt is tough. It changes things across the board a little bit, just in how you manage those minutes, but we have a flexible team. We have an unselfish team. The team knows the capabilities that DiJonai brings and obviously the communication has been there in terms of how big a piece we anticipated her being upon her return coming into this season. We\u2019ll figure it out as a unit and as a staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Carrington is focused on basketball. In her initial games, Carrington said she expects to rely on prior relationships with teammates like Natasha Cloud and Vandersloot, with whom she played in offseason leagues like Athletes Unlimited and Unrivaled.<\/p>\n

Carrington said she isn\u2019t nervous, but a type of anxiety defines these final days before making her return to the court. Still, the guard is eager to get back on the court, whether it\u2019s Thursday against Connecticut, Saturday against the Las Vegas Aces or later in this homestand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I feel good, I\u2019m not ducking no smoke,\u201d Carrington said. \u201cI\u2019m going to get back out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most of the 2026 WNBA season has been a waiting game for DiJonai Carrington. But after more than…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":968891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[49],"tags":[37461,1497,10586,8731,76040,389065,62,8345,67,132,68,232,22795,3357],"class_list":["post-968890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-bedford-park","tag-chicago-sky","tag-courtney-vandersloot","tag-dijonai-carrington","tag-injured-list","tag-sky-debut","tag-sports","tag-tyler-marsh","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-basketball","tag-womens-basketball"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117008614472479299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=968890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/968891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=968890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=968890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=968890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}