Team USA Loses A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum Before FIBA World Cup, Turns to Mystics Duo

USA Basketball announced Monday that A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum will not compete in the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup, citing health reasons for both players. ESPN’s Alexa Philippou first reported the change, and USA Basketball confirmed shortly after that Washington Mystics teammates Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron would take the two open roster spots. The tournament begins Friday in Berlin, with the United States opening group play against China.

Wilson’s absence came as something of a surprise. The Las Vegas Aces center has missed only three games all season and is averaging 26.0 points, 9.4 rebounds and roughly two blocks per contest, numbers that put her in position for a fifth WNBA MVP award. She appeared on the Aces’ injury report twice in the past week with a back issue but did not sit out, playing 30 minutes in Las Vegas’s final game before the FIBA break. A source close to the situation told ESPN that Wilson had not been fully healthy for some time, and that the physical demands of a compressed World Cup schedule raised concern within the organization. Wilson herself addressed the question last month, before any roster change had been made. “I’m gonna see when it gets to that moment and how I feel,” she said. “My body’s gonna tell it all.”

Plum’s situation carries less ambiguity. She has dealt with a lower leg and calf injury for most of the season, one that never fully healed after her trade from the Los Angeles Sparks to the Phoenix Mercury. She played in only 17 games this year, averaging 21.5 points and 5.4 assists when available, and has appeared in just one game since August 9. The Mercury ruled her out for the remainder of the 2026 WNBA season shortly after the World Cup withdrawal became official. Mercury general manager Nick U’Ren framed the decision around long-term health rather than the immediate tournament. “Kelsey is a competitor, and she wants nothing more than to be on the court with her teammates,” U’Ren said. “Ultimately, this was about doing what is best for Kelsey’s long-term health.”

A Mystics Pipeline Fills the Gap

Iriafen and Citron were not unfamiliar names within the program before Monday. Both played for the United States at the 2026 FIBA World Cup Qualifying Tournament in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in March, though Citron withdrew from that event because of injury before it started. Iriafen took part and helped the team win the qualifier, which makes Monday’s promotion less a leap into the unknown and more a natural next step. Citron, however, will be making her senior national team debut in Berlin; her only previous appearance in a USA Basketball uniform came at the U19 World Cup in December, where she won gold.

Statistically, the two Mystics have earned the call. Citron is averaging 16.8 points and 4.3 assists in her second WNBA season, enough to secure a second consecutive All-Star selection even though her three-point shooting has dipped from a year ago. Iriafen, also in her second season, is putting up 15.3 points and 9.4 rebounds across 37 games. Both players were central to Washington’s return to the playoffs for the first time since 2023.

Their arrival does leave a gap in experience. With Wilson and Plum gone, Breanna Stewart and Chelsea Gray become the most tenured World Cup players left on the roster. Stewart is entering her fourth World Cup, a distinction shared only with Sue Bird, who played in five, and Diana Taurasi, who played in four. Wilson and Plum had each won two World Cup gold medals apiece; Wilson also carried MVP honors from the 2022 tournament in Sydney, where she averaged 17.2 points and 7.5 rebounds, and from the 2024 Paris Olympics. Plum’s résumé includes gold at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups as well as the 2024 Olympics, though a torn Achilles kept her off the 2020 Olympic team entirely.

What Remains at Stake

Team USA still travels to Berlin as the favorite, and the roster left standing is not thin by any reasonable measure. Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese, Napheesa Collier, Aliyah Boston, Kahleah Copper, Rhyne Howard and Jackie Young round out the twelve alongside Stewart, Gray, Iriafen and Citron. Seven of those players are making their first World Cup appearance, a proportion of newcomers that head coach Kara Lawson, of Duke, will need to manage carefully against a field of sixteen national teams. The tournament runs from September 4 through September 13, split between the Max-Schmeling-Halle and the Uber Arena, with the United States grouped alongside China, Italy and Czechia.

History favors the Americans regardless of who is unavailable. The United States has medaled at every World Cup since 1979 and has not lost a game in the competition since a semifinal defeat to Russia in 2006. A gold medal in Berlin would extend the current winning streak, which dates back to 2010, and would tie the record of five consecutive World Cup titles set by the Soviet Union across 1959, 1964, 1967, 1971 and 1975. That kind of streak does not depend on any two players, though Wilson and Plum’s absence will be felt against the tournament’s stronger opponents, particularly in the frontcourt, where Iriafen now assumes a larger defensive workload than she has carried at the WNBA level.

The tournament also functions, whether by design or circumstance, as an early look at the roster USA Basketball may lean on for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Clark, Bueckers, Reese, Iriafen and Citron are all in their first or second WNBA seasons, and a strong showing in Germany would put each of them in position for a larger role two years from now.