Phoenix Mercury All-Star Brittney Griner, who missed all of last season while imprisoned in Russia, will miss a two-game road trip “to focus on her mental health,” the WNBA team said Saturday.
Griner won’t travel with the Mercury to Chicago and Indiana for games against the Sky and Fever on Sunday and Tuesday.
The Mercury return to Phoenix to host the Atlanta Dream on Thursday.
“The Mercury fully support Brittney and we will continue to work together on a timeline for her return,” the team said in a statement.
Griner is averaging 18.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.0 assists in her first season back with the Mercury.
She was arrested last year in Russia for having cannabis oil in her luggage and sentenced to prison but freed last December in a prisoner exchange.
While Griner earned a ninth WNBA All-Star nod in June, her solid season has come for a struggling Mercury team that she leads in scoring, rebounding and blocks.
They are 10th in the WNBA standings at 6-17 and battling to make it into the top eight to avoid missing the playoffs for the first time since 2012.
Griner, 32, is in her 10th WNBA season. She helped Phoenix win the 2014 league title and played for two US Olympic gold medal teams.
