Li Yueru (right) looks to pass the ball during a WNBA game between Dallas Wings and the New York Liberty at Barclays Center Arena in Brooklyn, New York, on Aug 5.

Li Yueru (right) of the Dallas Wings defends against Dearica Hamby of the Los Angeles Sparks during a WNBA game at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas, on Aug 15.

The cruel nature of competitive sports has taken its toll on Chinese basketball again, after the season of the country's sole WNBA representative Li Yueru was cut short by a left knee injury.

The 26-year-old Chinese center, who joined the Dallas Wings in a midseason trade from the Seattle Storm, was forced to leave a game against the Los Angeles Sparks on Aug 15 after suffering an apparent knee injury. She was then ruled out of Dallas' following game on Sunday, before the Wings announced on Tuesday that she will miss the rest of the season with an ACL sprain.

The sudden injury has curtailed Li's resurgence at a critical moment in her WNBA career, as she seemed to have just hit her stride with the struggling Wings, the West's bottom team with a 9-27 record as of Wednesday, by scoring a career-high 20 points against the Indiana Fever on Aug 12 to help snap Dallas' five-game skid.

Chris Koclanes, head coach of the Wings, admitted Li's injury would affect the team a lot, particularly in rebounding and rim protection.

"Just a little less size now. She was coming off that great game against Indy, and her and Myisha (Hines-Allen) really found that high-low game inside-out that was working," Koclanes told DallasHoopsJournal.com on Tuesday.

"But, we can still find mismatches and play inside-out. Defensively though, it maybe allows us to be a little more versatile, with some more switching lineups if we're putting a lot of players out there of similar sizes."

Since joining the franchise on June 14, Li has suited up in 22 games for the Wings, including 12 starts, averaging 7.4 points and 5.8 rebounds to help the team clinch eight of its total nine wins so far this regular season.

After further tests, initial reports indicated that Li would be out for "at least six weeks", according to a team announcement.

"Yueru is expected to make a full recovery. Additional updates will be provided when appropriate," the Dallas Wings posted on X on Wednesday.

Now, with just three weeks left remaining in the regular season, the injury-blown Wings, which also have four-time All-Star guard Arike Ogunbowale sidelined with a knee injury, will, for sure, miss Li's contribution off the bench, due to the team's lack of roster depth in the paint.

The Wings' growing injury list, which has also seen young guard Aziaha James sidelined, has forced Dallas to play more than 70 percent of its games with 10 or fewer players available, and more than 30 percent with nine or fewer.

The beleaguered franchise's disappointing season looks beyond salvation, despite star rookie Paige Bueckers' explosive individual performances, averaging 19.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game.

Relentless workload

Selected by the Atlanta Dream at 35th overall in 2019, Li only made her WNBA regular-season debut in the summer of 2022, representing the Chicago Sky following a pair of trades.

Despite an earlier injury, also to her left knee, and the challenges posed by the pandemic, Li kept working hard, with a hectic schedule over the past three years, plying her trade overseas between the WNBA and the Turkish women's league, as well as competing in the domestic WCBA and representing the Chinese national team at the 2022 FIBA Women's World Cup and Paris 2024 Olympics.

At international level, Li led China with team highs of 17.7 points and 11 rebounds per game at Paris 2024.She recorded the most points by a woman in Chinese Olympic basketball history since 1998 with 31 points against Spain on July 28, 2024.

As China's sole representative in the world's top women's league, Li has finally reestablished herself as a serious contender in the WNBA, following a slow start in the North American league, and then a short stint in Europe, after she helped get the fallen Wings soaring again six games into her Dallas adventure.

The reason pushing the relentless 6-foot-7 (2.01-meter) center to play tirelessly all year round, and all over the world, is simple.

"I came to the United States only for one reason, and that is to play basketball and improve myself at the highest possible level," Li said when explaining her request for a trade from Seattle to Dallas, per an X post from Seattle sports reporter Percy Allen, earlier this season.

Li's latest knee injury, after having withstood a punishing workload for the past few years, has left fans bemoaning the loss of, arguably, the only "world-class" player on China's current national team, which, in Li's absence, was beaten by close neighbor Japan in the FIBA Women's Asia Cup last month.

Following Team China's record-tying silver finish at the 2022 World Cup, Li's national teammates Han Xu (center) and Li Meng (forward) also joined the WNBA with New York Liberty and Washington Mystics, respectively, seeking higher-intensity drills, but both returned to their higher-paid domestic league clubs before the Paris Games.

sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn