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A former Gamecock who recently signed with a new WNBA team will have to wait a bit longer to make her debut after suffering a season-ending injury.
The Portland Fire announced Thursday that Sania Feagin will miss the rest of the 2026 season with a torn ACL. Feagin had joined the expansion team on a developmental contract June 24 after being waived by the Los Angeles Sparks.
Feagin will undergo surgery and rehab her injury with the team. She’d participated in practice but hadn’t made her Portland debut at the time of her injury.
Fire coach Alex Sarama said the injury was “unfortunate” but the team was still committed to Feagin, a two-time NCAA champion at South Carolina who was picked in the second round (No. 21 overall) by the Sparks last year.
Sarama said Portland will keep Feagin on her developmental contract despite her injury. Teams can roster up to two developmental players, who are allowed to participate in all training sessions, practice and travel but can only be on the active roster for 12 games and must have three or fewer years of WNBA service.
“(It’s) a case of still believing in her. We want Sania around because she’s going to learn from just being around the group every day, learning from film,” he said, via Oregon Live. “... It also means she’s going to get the best care possible.”
As noted by Oregon Live, there’s no specific carve-out for a WNBA team to move a developmental contract player to injured reserve.
Feagin will occupy one of those two roster spots even though she can’t play, which could be seen as a disadvantage to some teams but wasn’t a roadblock for Portland, according to Sarama.
Feagin: ‘Everyone’s going to be surprised’
Feagin, a 6-foot-3 forward, appeared in 19 total games for LA across the 2025 and 2026 seasons and averaged 1.1 points in 4.6 minutes per game.
At South Carolina, the Georgia native appeared in 135 games across four years for coach Dawn Staley and was part of the Gamecocks’ 2022 and 2024 championship teams. Feagin started all 39 games as a senior in 2024-25 and averaged a career-high 8.1 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.
Feagin is one of 13 USC players currently on a WNBA roster. Three former Gamecocks (A’ja Wilson, Aliyah Boston and Allisha Gray) were recently named to the league’s 2026 All-Star Teams.
In a July 1 media interview, Feagin said her time in Portland had been “peaceful” so far and she was looking forward to making an impact for the expansion team.
“I feel like I’ve been in the shadows a lot, so when I get an opportunity to go out there and be who I am, I feel like everybody’s going to be surprised on my offense and my defense,” she said.
