She helped Storm win it all. Now Stewie is out for the season

The Most Valuable Player in the WNBA is expected to miss the upcoming season due to injury.

Breanna Stewart, the 2019 WNBA and Seattle Storm MVP, ruptured her Achilles tendon on Sunday. She was carried off the court mid-game while playing in the Euro League Championship for Russian basketball team Dynamo Kursk.

It's commonplace for WNBA players to head overseas between seasons, where they can make more than double the salary they get from the WNBA. It's one extreme example of the U.S.'s gender wage gap: The top paid female basketball players make less than the lowest paid men in the NBA.

Natalie Weiner, a staff writer at SB Nation, and says the injury is probably fatigue related. Stewart and others who head overseas will end up playing 11 months out of the year.

"The consequence, obviously, is that they have no off season, which when you're playing any professional sport it's integral to have rests," Weiner said.

The WNBA and the Seattle Storm have not responded to a request for comment. In a statement, the team's CEO says "the Storm family is behind her" and will support Stewie in every way "as she begins her journey back to the court."

Stewart is the second WNBA star to sustain a major injury while playing in between seasons. Indiana Fever player Victoria Vivians is already out for the 2019 season due to a leg injury sustained overseas. Both happened just weeks before their regular WNBA training and season would begin.

"It's already harder, and they're playing all year, and so they're more prone to injury," said Weiner. "So Breanna Stewart, one of the faces of the league, if she's not in it because she hurt herself playing abroad, that's sort of an indictment of the way the WNBA has sort of come to function."

Weiner says if the WNBA paid players more, they wouldn't be as likely to play year-round and risk serious injuries.

The Storm are the reigning 2018 WNBA champions. The team has time to recruit or trade players before 2019 tips off, if needed.