What are the chances that a player suffers the same injury in back-to-back WNBA seasons? And then simply shrugs it off and still smiles about it afterward? Well, at this point, Jade Melbourne might just be the WNBA’s toughest player, and perhaps the Tooth Fairy’s favorite customer, too.
Last season, the Seattle Storm guard lost a tooth during a game against the Las Vegas Aces after inadvertently taking an elbow to the face. She again suffered the same injury during the team’s 2026 season opener against the Golden State Valkyries. Yet instead of heading straight to the locker room, Melbourne casually handed the broken tooth piece to a trainer and kept on playing. In fact, she even laughed a little about it this time around.
In comparison though, the 2025 incident, which she suffered while playing for the Washington Mystics, was a little nastier than this season’s. After the elbow from Aces guard Chelsea Gray, she not only lost part of a front tooth, but also suffered a bloody lip. She was initially escorted to the locker room for stitches but later rejoined her team on the bench. And although she could not continue playing that night, she still returned to cheer on her teammates with a visible gap in her smile and stitches in her lip. She was even smiling for photos despite the injury.
This season’s incident meanwhile was not from an elbow hit. Jade Melbourne dove for a loose ball and had an opponent land on her. That forced her face into the hardwood and led to her chipping her front tooth again. But this time, she did not even need a little time on the bench. Instead, she picked the tooth fragment off the floor, casually handed it to a trainer, smiled and laughed through the incident, and stayed in the game.
And even though the Seattle Storm eventually lost 91-80 to the Golden State Valkyries, Melbourne finished with 13 points in just 17 minutes. In the 2025 incident however, the result turned out differently. Her then team, the Washington Mystics, rallied in her absence to secure a 94-83 upset victory over the Las Vegas Aces, even though she only scored two points.
The Seattle Storm play their next game on May 10 against the Connecticut Sun. They will be hoping to turn things around and grab their first win of the season. And hopefully, this tooth injury does not keep Jade Melbourne from playing.
Will Jade Melbourne Play Against the Connecticut Sun? Seattle Latest Injury List After Melbourne Scare
Right now, every indication points to the fact that Jade Melbourne will be very much available for the Seattle Storm’s next game against the Connecticut Sun. In fact, despite chipping her front tooth, she is not on the team’s official injury report for the upcoming matchup. After the injury, she stayed on the court, played 17 minutes total. She even finished as one of the team’s top scorers with 13 points.
Also, since it was a dental injury rather than a concussion or structural issue, it does not typically require a stint on the inactive list unless further complications arise. If it were a concussion, she could not begin practicing until at least 24 hours after the injury. The WNBA will also require her to go through an evaluation.
However, while it seems quite certain that Jade Melbourne is active and ready for the next game, the Seattle Storm is still missing several key players. This includes Ezi Magbegor, who is out with a right-foot injury. The expectation is that she will return to the team in 6-8 weeks. There is also Katie Lou Samuelson, who is out with an ACL injury, so her return timeline is not quite definite yet.
The team is also missing Awa Fam, the No. 3 pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft. Although in her own case she is not injured. Instead she is currently under a “temporary suspension” of her contract, and the expectation is that she will join the team by May. Hopefully the next game ends without another injury scare and no other player joins the list.
