Aliyah Boston Leaves Fever Game With Lower Leg Injury

The Indiana Fever suffered what could be a brutal blow during their May 15 game.

Aliyah Boston | IMAGO / Sports Press Photo

The Indiana Fever suffered an overtime defeat to the Washington Mystics on May 15, losing at home by a score of 104-102. However, there's more concern about what happened to star center Aliyah Boston than about the game's outcome.

Boston suffered a leg injury during the second half of Friday night's game, and it was announced that she wouldn't be returning. Of course, it's too early to know the severity of Boston's injury. But the fact that she was immediately ruled out certainly isn't ideal.

What's also interesting about the injury is that it wasn't apparent when Boston was on the court, like most injuries are. Instead, Boston went to the locker room during a break in the action, which made it so that many people, both in the arena and watching the game on TV, didn't notice.

Indiana Fever center-forward Aliyah Boston (7) | Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

Context About Aliyah Boston's Lower-Leg Injury During Fever Game

On one hand, the fact that Boston's lower-body injury didn't obviously occur at any point in the game could be good news. But the fact that nobody noticed it happen also suggests that it was a non-contact injury, which is typically the worst-case scenario when it comes to lower extremity injuries.

But there's no point in speculating on the injury's severity at this point, since there is little known about it. All fans can do at this point is hope that whatever Boston is dealing with isn't serious, and that she's able to return for the Fever's next game.

Fever head coach Stephanie White was asked about the injury postgame and said, "I don't have any information on that. I haven't spoken to our medical staff yet," per an X post from Chloe Peterson. This is to be expected, given the timing.

Steph White on Aliyah Boston's lower leg injury: "I don't have any information on that. I haven't spoken to our medical staff yet."

— Chloe Peterson (@chloepeterson67) May 16, 2026

Boston was dealing with a lower-body injury during the end of her 2026 Unrivaled season, which caused her to miss the end of her Phantom BC team's season and the FIBA Women's World Cup Qualifying Tournament in March, where she was supposed to compete for Team USA.

There was never any clarity on what exactly Boston was dealing with at the time, but all indications were that she was entering the Fever's 2026 season fully healthy (though she was held out of Indiana's first two preseason games due to that lower leg injury). So one can't help but wonder whether there's any connection between that injury and what happened on Friday night.

The Fever are already short on frontcourt depth, and losing Boston for an extended period of time would be a tough blow to recover from.