An unexpected knee injury didn’t keep actor Aubrey Plaza from her front-row seat to the WNBA All-Star game on Saturday, which the “White Lotus” star attended while icing her leg and using crutches. Plaza, 40, suffered a torn ACL — a notoriously painful medical situation that can sometimes require surgery to fix — while playing “knockout” at the Phoenix Mercury’s practice facility earlier in the weekend, according to sports commentator Ryan Ruocco.
“I feel for Aubrey Plaza,” Ruocco said over the loudspeakers inside the Phoenix stadium where this year’s All-Star game occurred. “She came this weekend with a healthy knee. She’s leaving with a torn ACL, thanks to a hardy game of knockout at the Mercury practice facility.”
Ruocco can be heard commenting on Plaza’s injury in a video clip from the game that the Seattle Storm shared on social media, where the actor is seen sitting courtside with at least one crutch and trying to readjust an ice pack on her knee. She received some help with that from soccer legend Megan Rapinoe and retired WNBA star Sue Bird, who sat beside her in the stands.
“The GOAT lending a helping hand to Aubrey Plaza,” the Seattle Storm captioned their social media post.
Plaza also shared several pictures and video from All-Star weekend on Instagram, including images of herself sitting on the court with Rapinoe and Bird, posing with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, and shaking hands with the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark, who played on the WNBA All-Star team alongside fellow fan-favorite rookie and former college rival Angel Reese. Plaza posted one photo in which she appeared to be lying down with her leg elevated, and another where she held a WNBA All-Star edition basketball in her lap while seemingly being pushed in a wheelchair.
The Emmy nominee didn’t explicitly speak about the nature of her knee injury, but she appeared to signal that everything was OK with a thumbs-up gesture to the Team WNBA coach Cheryl Miller in the fourth quarter of the game Saturday night, AZ Central reported.
Plaza has torn her ACL before, and that injury was also related to basketball. She was filming the 2016 documentary “The Pistol Shrimps,” about a women’s recreational basketball league in Los Angeles when it happened, Plaza said in subsequent interviews.
Saturday’s game was highly anticipated, mainly because it marked Clark and Reese’s All-Star debuts. It ended in a win for the WNBA team against Team USA, with Clark setting the All-Star Game rookie assist record, CBS Sports reported.