Seattle Storm guard Nika Mühl underwent successful ACL surgery on March 31 and will miss the entire 2026 WNBA season, her second straight year lost to a knee injury.
The Seattle Storm announced Wednesday that Nika Mühl underwent successful surgery on a torn ACL in her right knee and will miss the entire 2026 WNBA season.
The injury occurred on March 11 while Mühl was representing Croatia in the FIBA Women's EuroBasket Qualifiers. She went under the knife on March 31 and is now in the early stages of recovery.
The timing is brutal. This is the second straight year Mühl has torn an ACL. She missed all of 2025 after tearing the ACL and meniscus in her left knee in October 2024 while playing for Besiktas in the Turkish Women's Basketball Super League. She has now suffered ACL tears in both knees in back-to-back years. Mühl will head into the 2027 season having not played a single WNBA minute since her rookie year.
That rookie year came in 2024, when Seattle selected her 14th overall out of UConn. She got into 16 games, averaging 3.6 minutes per appearance, and finished the season with two points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists.
The numbers were never the point with her. Mühl earned the "Secretary of Defense" nickname at Connecticut for a reason — she is a 6-0 perimeter defender with the length and instincts to cause real problems at the next level. The WNBA just hasn't seen it yet.
At 24 years old, she has time on her side. But back-to-back ACL tears are serious, and there is no guarantee what she looks like on the other side of this one.
Seattle opens the preseason Saturday, April 25, at the Golden State Valkyries before beginning the regular season on the road against Golden State again on May 8. The Storm went 23-21 last season, finished seventh in the league, and made the playoffs.
They will need to get through 2026 short-handed on the defensive end — a tough ask for a roster still working its way back into the conversation at the top of the league.
The Storm said updates on Mühl's recovery timeline will be shared when available.