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Delle Donne 'hurt' over panel's decision to deny medical opt-out

Stephen Gosling / National Basketball Association / Getty

Star Washington Mystics forward Elena Delle Donne opened up about the decision a panel of independent physicians recently made to deny her medical opt-out request for the 2020 season.

"It hurts a lot," Delle Donne wrote for The Players' Tribune in a piece published Wednesday. "And maybe being hurt just makes me naive. And I know that, as athletes, we’re not really supposed to talk about our feelings.

"But feelings are pretty much all I have left right now. I don’t have NBA player money. I don’t have the desire to go to war with the league on this. And I can’t appeal."

Delle Donne suffers from the long-term effects of Lyme disease, an immunocompromising condition that requires her to take 64 pills per day, she disclosed.

The medical panel, which the WNBA and the Women's National Basketball Players Association jointly appointed, ruled Monday that, based on current CDC guidelines, the 30-year-old's condition doesn't put her at a higher risk of health ramifications should she contract COVID-19.

"What I hear in their decision is that I’m a fool for believing my doctor," Delle Donne added. "That I’m faking a disability. That I’m trying to 'get out' of work and still collect a paycheck."

The reigning MVP, who piloted the Mystics to a league-best 26-8 record and the franchise's first-ever WNBA title in 2019, sarcastically dismissed that notion.

"Yup ..... They caught me," Delle Donne wrote. "That’s why I played in the finals last year with three herniated discs in my back."

She also played through last year's championship series with a nasal fracture, and Delle Donne was wearing a large left knee brace following an injury suffered in the 2018 playoffs.

While Delle Donne is still "thinking very carefully" about whether she'll join the Mystics at the WNBA's campus in Bradenton, Fla. or sit out the season and forfeit her 2020 salary, the six-time All-Star did pledge to use her celebrity status to bring awareness to Lyme disease.

"I know it’s way past time for me to take a more public role in the battle against Lyme disease - a battle that I’ve been fighting mostly privately for years," she wrote. "I’m truly sorry that I didn’t do more, sooner.

"But I have this platform and I want to help. I hope this is a start."

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