
Jonquel Jones sits out against Sky in Liberty injury concern
Liberty star Jonquel Jones didn't play Tuesday night against the Sky due to a sprained ankle.
Coach Sandy Brondello confirmed before the game that Jones remains on the mend after she hurt her right ankle in Thursday's win against the Washington Mystics.
'She's not quite there,' Brondello said. 'We're always about making sure the player is ready to come back and as close to 100 percent as possible.'
Advertisement
Liberty center Jonquel Jones (35) shoots the ball over Washington Mystics forward Shakira Austin.
Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
An X-ray of Jones' ankle Friday revealed no structural damage. The 2024 WNBA Finals MVP sat out practice Sunday and Monday for treatment.
How long Jones, 31, may be sidelined will depend on swelling.
Advertisement
The Liberty don't play again until Saturday at Indiana, and Brondello said Jones will be evaluated 'day by day.'
Jones' injury comes as center Nyara Sabally makes her way back to the court.
Sabally missed the past six games with a knee injury, but was cleared to play Tuesday in her first game since the Liberty throttled the Sky in Chicago on May 22.
Liberty center Jonquel Jones (35) is attended to by a member of the Liberty training staff after being injured against the Washington Mystics.
Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
Advertisement
Sabally and Isabelle Harrison were looking to play larger roles against a struggling Sky team anchored in the post by Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso. But no one could completely fill the void left by Jones' absence.
Jones has played a critical part in the Liberty's best start in franchise history. She's posted four double-doubles in six games and is averaging 13.9 points and a team-high 10.3 rebounds per game.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


San Francisco Chronicle
4 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
LA sports celebrities anticipate World Cup's arrival, hope political climate has cooled by then
LOS ANGELES (AP) — When the 2026 World Cup begins across North America one year from this week, sports figures from across Los Angeles are hoping the global soccer community will find the U.S. both inspiring and welcoming. The Fox network marked the one-year milestone Wednesday night with a big party at its studio lot in Century City. Attendees included everyone from 'Ted Lasso' star Jason Sudeikis to luminaries from every corner of the sports world in the nation's second-largest metropolitan area, including Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh. 'I remember when the World Cup was here in the '90s, and then obviously what our American women's team did to win the World Cup (in 1999),' Harbaugh said. 'So yeah, I love sports, I love competition, and I think it's going to be incredible for our state, our city, our country. The vibe is going to be incredible to just have everybody here. I'm looking for another explosion of soccer — football — in America.' The attendees all expressed excitement about the return of the world's premier soccer tournament to the U.S. while acknowledging the uncertainty of whether the nation's fraught political climate could present significant challenges to the teams, the World Cup organizers and even the network that will broadcast the tournament domestically. 'I'm hoping this game can bring people together,' said former LA Galaxy midfielder Cobi Jones, a three-time World Cup veteran and the U.S. men's career leader in appearances. 'That's what we really want. We're talking about the travel bans and all that, I'm hoping that FIFA can work together with our government to find a way that everyone can be here, everyone can enjoy this sport, because it's a cultural event that's happening here in a year. I expect everyone from around the world to be able to come here and enjoy it.' Los Angeles is in the midst of several days of protests against intensified immigration raids across the nation that could cause international fans to wonder whether they can travel to the tournament safely. President Donald Trump's latest expansive travel ban has raised questions about whether some soccer fans will be able to visit at all. 'I think it will get figured out,' Harbaugh said. 'To quote the late, great Tom Petty, most things I worry about don't end up happening anyway.' Jones also preached caution for U.S. fans already fretting about the dismal state of their national team. Coach Mauricio Pochettino's squad is on its first four-game losing streak since 2007 after getting thrashed 4-0 by Switzerland on Tuesday in its final tune-up for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. 'We don't panic right now,' Jones said. 'Talk to me when we're a month out. I've seen from experience that with a year out from the World Cup, the team is going to completely change (in the interim). So for me, it's all about a general sense of whether they can come together as a team, because it's not about the individuals. We've seen it so many times.' ___


Hamilton Spectator
4 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
LA sports celebrities anticipate World Cup's arrival, hope political climate has cooled by then
LOS ANGELES (AP) — When the 2026 World Cup begins across North America one year from this week, sports figures from across Los Angeles are hoping the global soccer community will find the U.S. both inspiring and welcoming. The Fox network marked the one-year milestone Wednesday night with a big party at its studio lot in Century City. Attendees included everyone from 'Ted Lasso' star Jason Sudeikis to luminaries from every corner of the sports world in the nation's second-largest metropolitan area, including Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh. 'I remember when the World Cup was here in the '90s, and then obviously what our American women's team did to win the World Cup (in 1999),' Harbaugh said. 'So yeah, I love sports, I love competition, and I think it's going to be incredible for our state, our city, our country. The vibe is going to be incredible to just have everybody here. I'm looking for another explosion of soccer — football — in America.' The attendees all expressed excitement about the return of the world's premier soccer tournament to the U.S. while acknowledging the uncertainty of whether the nation's fraught political climate could present significant challenges to the teams, the World Cup organizers and even the network that will broadcast the tournament domestically. 'I'm hoping this game can bring people together,' said former LA Galaxy midfielder Cobi Jones, a three-time World Cup veteran and the U.S. men's career leader in appearances. 'That's what we really want. We're talking about the travel bans and all that, I'm hoping that FIFA can work together with our government to find a way that everyone can be here, everyone can enjoy this sport, because it's a cultural event that's happening here in a year. I expect everyone from around the world to be able to come here and enjoy it.' Los Angeles is in the midst of several days of protests against intensified immigration raids across the nation that could cause international fans to wonder whether they can travel to the tournament safely. President Donald Trump's latest expansive travel ban has raised questions about whether some soccer fans will be able to visit at all. 'I think it will get figured out,' Harbaugh said. 'To quote the late, great Tom Petty, most things I worry about don't end up happening anyway.' Jones also preached caution for U.S. fans already fretting about the dismal state of their national team. Coach Mauricio Pochettino's squad is on its first four-game losing streak since 2007 after getting thrashed 4-0 by Switzerland on Tuesday in its final tune-up for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. 'We don't panic right now,' Jones said. 'Talk to me when we're a month out. I've seen from experience that with a year out from the World Cup, the team is going to completely change (in the interim). So for me, it's all about a general sense of whether they can come together as a team, because it's not about the individuals. We've seen it so many times.' ___ AP soccer:
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Sky Sports News' golden age at an end as rival platforms turn up the volume
A constant in pubs, gyms and hotel breakfast rooms, almost always with the sound down. Perhaps not since cinema's silent age have faces been so familiar without the general public knowing their voices. The vibe is more casual than in previous times, shirt sleeves rather than business suits, but the formula remains the same: a carousel of news, clips, quotes, quips, centred around highlights, all framed within a constant flow of results, fixtures and league tables. Sky Sports News hits 27 years of broadcasting in August, having been launched for the 1998-99 football season by BSkyB. As the domestic football season concluded, news came of changes within the Osterley-based newsroom. Seven members of the broadcast talent team would be leaving, including the long-serving Rob Wotton and the senior football reporter Melissa Reddy, within a process of voluntary redundancies. Advertisement Sky sources – not those Sky sources – are keen to state the changes are not a cost-cutting exercise, instead a redress of SSN's place within a changing media environment. Ronan Kemp, the One Show presenter and Celebrity Goggleboxer, is understood to be in discussions to join Sky and despite Wotton's departure, Ref Watch will still be serving those who get their kicks from re-refereeing matches and VAR calls. Rolling news, which became common currency around the time of the initial Gulf war with Iraq is no longer the go-to information environment. Sky News, SSN's sister organisation, is going through similar changes, including the loss of the veteran anchor Kay Burley. The smartphone, where news alerts supplant even social media, takes the strain of keeping the world informed of Micky van de Ven's latest hamstring injury. Desperate to hear even more from Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville? There are podcasts and YouTube channels available at a swipe. In the US, ESPN's SportsCenter and its accompanying ESPNews channel were the progenitors of a medium copied globally and by Sky in launching SSN. SportsCenter is a flagship in marked decline from a golden 1990s era that made American household names of presenters such as Stuart Scott, Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick. ESPN, an organisation in the process of taking itself to digital platforms as cable TV gets mothballed, closed SportsCenter's Los Angeles studio in March. Linear TV's death will be slow, but it is dying nonetheless as streaming, all bundles and consumer choice, takes hold. Meanwhile, YouTube channels, with production values way below industry standard, amass huge audiences for fan-owned, independent media. Advertisement The time of viewers tuning in for 10pm highlights voiced over by presenters' catchphrases – Scott's 'boo yah!' being the prime example – has long passed. Social media and YouTube have killed the demand. Though live sports remain the foundation of broadcasting contracts, highlights and analysis can be watched at the time of the viewers' choice. Digital is where the eyeballs go, and what the advertising dollar is attracted to, despite the ubiquity of Go Compare et al. Viewing figures remain healthy but the game is now about far more than ratings. SSN's imperial period was the early millennium days of Dave Clark and Kirsty Gallacher's toothsome double act, to a time when the yellow ticker of breaking news held great sway, though not always delivering on its promise of earthquake journalism (news of Nicky Shorey's Reading contract extension, anyone?). Millie Clode, Di Stewart, Charlotte Jackson, Kelly Cates: a nation turned its lonely eyes to them. Then there was transfer deadline day, more important than the football itself. Long, frantic hours spent hearing Jim White's Glaswegian whine declare anything could happen on this day of days. In the early years it often did, from Peter Odemwingie's mercy dash to Loftus Road to the brandishing of a sex toy in the earhole of reporter Alan Irwin outside Everton's training ground. Another reporter, Andy 'four phones' Burton, labelled the night the 2008 window closed: 'The best day of my life, apart from when my son was born.' Eventually, though, it became too knowing. Not even White's yellow tie, as garish as his hype, accompanied by Natalie Sawyer's yellow dress, could stop the event from becoming desperate hours chasing diminishing returns. Live television is a challenging environment, especially with nothing to feed off. Advertisement Though many presenters have been lampooned – abused in the more carrion social media age – the difficulty of 'going live' with an earpiece full of instructions and timings should never be underestimated. How does Mike Wedderburn, the channel's first presenter, make it look so easy? When, in a broadcasting-carriage dispute between Virgin and Sky, Setanta Sports News was given brief life in 2007 – 22 months as the Dagmar to Sky's Queen Vic – it was made apparent how hard, and costly, the business can be. Over-exposure to SSN – as happens when someone works in a newspaper sports department, say – can lead to contempt. The joins can be seen, too. Haven't they done that same gag for the past six hours and each time pretended it was an ad lib? Just what is Gary Cotterill up to this time? Why did Bryan Swanson always use such portentous tones? From morning till night, it would be ever-present. On weekend evenings, when you caught the skilled veteran duo of Julian Waters and the late David Bobin running through the day's events, you knew it was time to leave the office, down that late drink, question your life choices, the pair's clipped tones taking on the effect of a lonely late-night cab ride. SSN is forced to move with the times. As is the case across the industry, journalists have often been supplanted by influencers, as the mythical, perhaps unreachable, 'younger audience' is chased. That is not to say the channel is short of decent reporting. In the aftermath of the 2022 Champions League final in Paris, chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol produced a superb account of the ensuing chaos and danger while others floundered for detail. Advertisement SSN, like SportsCenter across the Atlantic, is now more a production factory for content being sent across the internet, published to multiple platforms, than it is a rolling news channel. Within press statements around the redundancies there was the word 'agile', a term repurposed – and overused – in the business world, but meaning doing more with less. Next season, as heavily trailed on SSN right now, Sky will have 215 Premier League live matches to show, including every game played on Sundays. That requires the company's shift in focus, for Sky Sports News in particular. Though look up wherever you are and it will still be on in the corner, almost certainly with the sound down.