Injury update: Mizzou star Sophie Cunningham gets good news

A win over Alabama in their SEC opener was exactly what the Missouri women’s basketball team wanted to get on Sunday, but it nearly came at far too high of a cost. With the game still closely contested in the fourth quarter, Tiger forward Sophie Cunningham went down and had to be helped off the court. With Cunningham sidelined the Tigers were still able to gut out a 62-56 win over the Tide, but plenty of questions surrounded the nature of the injury.

“I know (trainers) took a look at it, and once we get back to Columbia we’ll have our doctors take a better look,” Mizzou coach Robin Pingeton said during her postgame radio interview.

On Sunday night, Cunningham herself took to Twitter to address concerned Tiger fans.

On Tuesday afternoon the update came that an MRI revealed a right knee sprain an that the All-SEC performer would be listed as day-to-day.

For the season, Cunningham is averaging 18.2 points per game, fourth in the SEC, while shooting 57% from the field, the fifth best mark in the conference. With the win over Alabama, Mizzou is now 13-1 (1-0) with its lone loss coming back in their season opener against Western Kentucky. The team finds themselves ranked 15 in both the AP and the coaches poll.

The Tigers will host LSU at home on Thursday, January 4 before hosting the defending national champion South Carolina Gamecocks on Sunday, January 7, a game they could greatly use the services of Cunningham for. Coach Pingeton addressed that after the game against Alabama.

“Our focus now is we’ve got to get back and see what’s going on with Sophie,” Pingeton said. “Our kids will respond. We love playing at home. We know what it’s all about. We’ll prepare to the best of our ability and control what we can control.”