Neither freshman forward Manuela Alves nor freshman guard Erica Finney will debut for Illinois this upcoming Thursday due to season-ending injuries, the team announced on Tuesday afternoon.
Alves, a four-star recruit and multi-time FIBA player for Brazil, tore her ACL during a pre-season workout. At 6-foot-3, Alves would have been valuable off the bench. She brings length and international experience to the Illinois roster.
“This is just a setback, not the end of my story,” Alves wrote on Instagram.
Illinois’ room of forwards and bigs runs much deeper than last year. However, head coach Shauna Green mentioned at media day how she was planning to use matchup-dependent frontcourt combinations. With the loss of Alves, Green may need to rethink some of her planned pairings.
Finney, another international four-star recruit, will also miss the 2025-2026 season while she recovers from bilateral knee surgeries. Her international experience, most recently representing Australia on its U17 FIBA team in 2024, has given her valuable development opportunities that would have bolstered Illinois’ roster.
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Her injury takes away the only Illinois guard who hits the 6-foot mark, with the next tallest players standing at 5-foot-11: junior guard Maddie Webber, sophomore guard Mia Zenere and junior guard Gretchen Dolan. Webber and Dolan are expected to log a lot of minutes, so losing Finney will be a significant blow to their load management as it gets deeper into the season.
