Cameron Brink shares post-surgery photo alongside long-time boyfriend (and her dog) after LA Sparks rookie’s season-ending knee injury

Cameron Brink is officially on the mend.

The injured Los Angeles Sparks rookie shared a post-surgery photo on Instagram after having the ACL in her left knee repaired.

“So much change, yet so much joy,” the 6-foot-2 Instagram sensation captioned the post, which also featured her longtime boyfriend Ben Felter and her dog Olive.

The Sparks will be without Brink for the rest of the year due to the injury, which also forced her off the U.S. Olympic 3×3 team. She has been replaced by Sparks teammate Dearica Hamby.

Brink met Felter while the two were attending Stanford. Felter was a member of the Cardinal’s rowing team, while she was the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year and a national champion on the basketball team.

Brink continued to use crutches after the surgery while her boyfriend carried her dog Olive

Months earlier, Felter announced on Instagram that the couple has been together for three years.

“Three years together, a day to celebrate the soul that makes me whole,” he wrote in the caption alongside a romantic photo of the couple.

Felter has an impressive resume, according to his LinkedIn page. Most recently, he worked at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL) after graduating from his native Palo Alto with a master’s degree in science.

And, according to his Stanford rowing biography pageFelter is a three-time Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll selection.

The optimistic tone of the Instagram post is in stark contrast to her injury earlier this month.

Brink had to be helped off the field in the first quarter of the Sparks’ 79-70 loss to Connecticut on June 18. Brink played less than four minutes and committed one foul before getting hurt.

Once on the sideline, number 2 limped along the way to the locker room, but had to stop due to pain. A few Sparks employees picked Brink up and carried her to the locker room.

Brink had to be helped off the field during the Sparks’ loss to Connecticut on June 18

Months earlier, Felter announced on Instagram that the couple has been together for three years

Brink added some photos of herself with her dog, who she named “Olive.”

‘You never think it will happen to you. And despite all the hard work, sometimes it works. This is hard to fathom, but I know it will only make me stronger,” Brink wrote in a post on Instagram.

‘I will not go off the rails and I will continue to love this life. I’m not defined by basketball, but it’s something I love immensely and I’ll work on getting back to it every day. It’s not goodbye basketball, it’s just goodbye. I am ever so grateful for your thoughts and prayers.”

The 22-year-old Brink came into the game averaging 8.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in her first season for Los Angeles (4-11). She is tied with A’ja Wilson for the second-most blocks in the WNBA.

“Other than the 2019 season, every year I’ve been a head coach in this league, I’ve lost a starter to injury,” Curt Miller said. “You just have to have the mentality of the next person and rally around it.”

This is the second consecutive Olympic Games where the US team has had to replace one of its original players. Katie Lou Samuelson missed the 2021 Tokyo Games after contracting COVID-19 just before the Olympics. She was replaced by Jackie Young, who helped the team win a gold medal.