What happened to JuJu Watkins? How torn ACL recovery timeline impacts NCAA, WNBA future

What happened to JuJu Watkins? How torn ACL recovery timeline impacts NCAA, WNBA future originally appeared on The Sporting News

A torn ACL denied college basketball fans a chance to see JuJu Watkins — USC's wondrous sophomore standout — lead the No. 1 Trojans through the harrowing gauntlet that is the NCAA Tournament last season. But how much longer will fans have to wait before witnessing the hoops savant from returning to her gleaming palace?

Watkins is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines. That won't merely impact her present in Pasadena, but also her future.

Here's what you need to know about Watkins' absence, as well as how it could shape her as she continues to work her way up the basketball ladder.

📲 Follow The Sporting News on WhatsApp

What happened to JuJu Watkins?

Watkins sustained a torn ACL during USC's second-round win over Mississippi State in March 2025. The injury occurred in the first quarter of the matchup when Watkins, the effervescent 19-year old who captured Sporting News Player of the Year honors in 2025, fell to the floor while attempting to drive towards the basket.

Watkins was unable to put weight on her right knee as she exited the floor. She was summarily carried off the court and taken to the locker room, then the university's medical center via wheelchair, where she underwent an MRI. The imaging revealed that Watkins had ruptured her ACL, ruling her out for the remainder of the year and potentially beyond.

JuJu Watkins ACL recovery timeline

Watkins has faced a similar layoff to fellow collegiate stars Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and Olivia Miles, all of whom suffered the same injury during their sophomore and junior seasons, respectively.

She announced in September 2025 that she will not play during the 2025-26 college basketball season as she continues recovering from her injury.

"These last few months have been filled with a lot of healing, rest, and reflection. Recovering from this injury hasn't been easy, and I want to say thank you - your love, support and kind words have truly lifted me up during one of the most challenging times in my life," Watkins wrote in a statement. "Because you've been with me every step of the way, I wanted you to hear it from me directly that following the advice of my doctors and trainers, I will sit out this season and fully focus on continuing to recover so I can come back to the game I love."

Breaking: JuJu Watkins will be sidelined for the 2025-26 season, she announced on Instagram — confirming what was long feared after her March 2025 ACL tear pic.twitter.com/FRhdZmCkpv

— Alexa Philippou (@alexaphilippou) September 29, 2025

Watkins is officially set to sit out the 2025-26 season, eyeing the future for her recovery.

Recoveries have differed by athlete with torn ACLs. But generally, it has taken anywhere from 9-18 months for a player to return to the floor. Bueckers, for example, had to wait 369 days to take the floor.

"Typically, it's 12 to 18 months," Dr. Derek Ochiai — a doctor of sports medicine and Virginia’s leading board-certified arthroscopic hip surgeon — told TSN's Stephen Noh.

Watkins had to wait a few weeks for the swelling in her knee to diminish — typically, it takes four to six weeks for inflammation to diminish and surgeons to start operating on the tear. 

The process by which Watkins recovers from her malady will likely share contours with that of Bueckers, Fudd, Miles and countless other women's basketball stars to be sidelined with ACL tears. She'll have to rest and allow her body to naturally mend her wounds, accounting for muscle atrophy that inevitably sets in due to a lack of activity.

Watkins will then take part in daily physical therapy, slowly ramping up her exercises and basketball activities as she attempts to strengthen the ligament and protect it from further injury down the line.

At just 19, Watkins doesn't have too much mileage on her knee cartilage. That should aid in her recovery, as should her already impressive lower-body strength.

Still, Watkins faces a long road back to to her effervescent best, one that could take more than a year to come to fruition.

MORE JUJU WATKINS NEWS:

• Surgeon outlines JuJu Watkins' future outlook
• How torn ACL impacts JuJu Watkins' NCAA eligibility
• Caitlin Clark, others send heartfelt messages to JuJu Watkins

What's next for JuJu Watkins?

While the injury certainly is less than ideal for Watkins, she will retain an injury redshirt, a waiver that will make her eligible to play during the 2027-28 NCAA season, if she so chooses to. Her situation is eerily similar to Bueckers, who saw her sophomore season come to an abrupt end after tearing her ACL. Bueckers missed the whole of her junior season before returning to the floor in 2023-24 as a senior.

The UConn star enjoyed a sumptuous campaign and could have entered the 2024 WNBA Draft alongside Caitlin Clark, Cameron Brink, Angel Reese and countless others. Instead, she opted to play out her fifth year of eligibility, authoring up another impressive campaign in Huskies blue. She was then the No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, too.

Watkins was the odds-on favorite to be selected first overall during the 2027 WNBA Draft. She'll likely get a chance to display that potential before the end of the 2026-27 season. But if she feels she has unfinished business to attend to or is unconvinced by the teams vying for her services at the bottom of the WNBA, she could always come back for the 2027-28 NCAA season. She'd likely garner plenty of endorsements regardless. And who doesn't love a good comeback story?

Regardless, Watkins — like Bueckers was in 2024 — will become draft eligible upon the start of her fourth-year of schooling: in this case, 2027. She'll be four years removed from her high school graduation, one of three markers that triggers draft eligibility.