JuJu Watkins took the college basketball world by storm as a freshman, but it's been a long time since she played in a competitive game. Now, Watkins is finally ready to return to action.

USC opens its 2026-27 season against UNLV on Monday, with the Trojans entering the season as the No. 3-ranked team in the country and national championship expectations. A big reason for that is Watkins, who is arguably the best player in college basketball when healthy.

Last year, USC missed Watkins a ton as the team had an underwhelming season, but doctors and Watkins made sure not to rush her back from knee surgery. Now, Watkins is ready to return to her place in college basketball.

Here's a breakdown of why Watkins missed so much time in the past 19 months.

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What happened to JuJu Watkins?

Watkins tore her right ACL in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament against Mississippi State. Watkins was going for a layup in transition when she collided with multiple defenders, and she immediately went down and held her right knee in pain.

Watkins needed help off the court as she couldn't put weight on her right knee. A few weeks later, Watkins underwent knee surgery that cost her the 2025-26 season.

JuJu Watkins was carried off the court and taken to the locker room after suffering an injury on this play. https://t.co/zFgm8PkVnu

— ESPN (@espn) March 25, 2025

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JuJu Watkins recovery timeline

When Watkins takes the floor on Monday night to open USC's season, it will have been 588 days since she suffered the knee injury. The star guard missed the entire 2025-26 season while recovering, and she got the benefit of a second full offseason to make sure she was fully healthy.

Watkins had surgery around two weeks after the injury occurred, and before the 2025-26 season even began, she announced that she would sit out the entire season instead of trying to rush back. Watkins told ESPN what her rehab process was like, as she had to slow-play it despite feeling the desire to get back quickly.

"This injury forced me to be stationary and start back all the way to the fundamentals of how I first started learning to play and shoot," she said.

At first, Watkins spent most of her time in the weight room before she branched out to more stationary basketball movements like catching and shooting. Eventually, she was able to move again at full speed, and she is grateful for the entire process.

"It was very gradual and definitely a humbling experience, just because it was such a long process," she said. "There were a lot of small wins along the way."

In total, Watkins missed 34 of USC's games: two in the 2025 NCAA tournament, then 32 during the 2025-26 season.

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When was the last time JuJu Watkins played in a game?

Watkins last played in a game on March 24, 2025, when she went down with an injury against Mississippi State in the NCAA tournament. That was the game in which she suffered the torn ACL, playing just five minutes in the game and collecting three points before leaving the game.

Prior to that injury, Watkins had shown incredible durability, playing in 37 games across her first two collegiate seasons. USC sorely missed Watkins, as the Trojans went 18-14 on the season and lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament as a No. 9 seed.

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