Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham opens up about recovery struggles after season-ending MCL surgery

Less than a week has passed since Sophie Cunningham's knee surgery which ended her inaugural season with the Indiana Fever. The guard recently talked candidly about her difficulties following the surgery.

She took to the Show Me Something podcast and further talked about her issues.

For context, she had the surgery after suffering an MCL rupture earlier this month, and during her recovery, she faced another issue.

Sophie Cunningham revealed post-surgery struggles with pain medication and recovery challenges

The Indiana Fever star discussed how the surgery has affected her bowel movements in an episode of her podcast Show Me Something with West Wilson. The 29-year-old provided a positive report regarding her recovery process and said: "I need to start taking laxatives… I have literally just been inhaling food and nothing's come out."When the WNBA pro stated that she was "doing great" and had already started her recovery, she sounded positive. She further explained that her bowel issue was most likely caused by the medications she took during the procedure. Sophie Cunningham also disclosed that she encountered some initial difficulties. The 6-foot-1 guard claimed that following her surgery, the physicians had to modify her pain medication. She then talked about her difficulties taking the drugs, even though the painkillers might have contributed to her gastrointestinal problems.

She said: “I react so weird to pain meds… I’ve had three surgeries and my meds have always been different. … I was on [Hydrocodone]. Was not working. I could feel every little cut and incision they did on my knee.She continued:“And so then I got to [Oxycodon], and you’re only supposed to take one, but again, I got a (high) tolerance to it, and so I had to take like two and a half, and then I was finally feeling good.”The bright side is that increasing her dosage promptly fixed the problem. It now looks like Cunningham will have to rely on the medications till the surgical pain goes away.

Sophie Cunningham sidelined with season-ending MCL injury

Indiana Fever's brightest star, Sophie Cunningham, will miss playing in the postseason due to a season-ending injury. She tore the MCL ligament in her knee when she was playing against Connecticut Sun on August 17. Bria Hartley might have accidentally caused the injury after she fell and hit her knee while passing the ball.

Soph missed the rest of the season after being taken out of the game. After the game was over, Stephanie White, the coach, remarked on "the way that she fell and how she was holding herself and how much pain she was in."

Team representatives did not, however, elaborate on the situation.Meanwhile, the timing of her injury was unfortunate for the Indiana Fever. Several backcourt issues have been stressing out the club. Sydney Colson and Aari McDonald sustained injuries a week before Soph, and Caitlin Clark has been out since the All-Star break.Also read: Did Bria Hartley intentionally injure Sophie Cunningham? WNBA pro responds to allegations following a season-ending injury