Mohegan — A Connecticut Sun season just wouldn’t be complete without a major injury.

Injuries are a job hazard for any athlete and every WNBA team must deal with them. It just seems like the Sun have dealt with more of their fair share of them during their 14-year history at Mohegan Sun Arena. They had enough during both the 2013 and 2015 seasons to cripple an HMO.

Sun rookie guard Rachel Banham is out for the rest of the season after having micro-fracture surgery on her right knee Friday, leaving them without one of their best 3-point shooters and shorthanded at point guard. They play host to the Atlanta Dream Sunday afternoon (1 p.m., Mohegan Sun Arena).

Banham had been playing through pain for over a month and the plan Friday had been for her to have arthroscopic surgery to repair a lateral meniscus tear and return after the Olympic break.

“The thing that I feel the worst about is not us,” Connecticut coach Curt Miller said. “It’s that we’ve known that Rachel has been playing at less than 100 percent for the majority of the season and just didn’t say anything publicly. What was harder was to bite my tongue because there were some things said about Rachel that were unfair because her grit and desire to keep playing despite not being 100 percent was outstanding. She never complained about it. She just went about her business.”

The Sun (5-13) traded second-year center Elizabeth Williams to Atlanta (10-9) during the offseason for the fourth overall pick in April’s WNBA Draft. They used it to draft Banham. She played both guard positions at the University of Minnesota and Miller wanted her to play the point.

Banham has come back from knee surgeries before. She had surgery for patellar tendinitis in both knees in June 2013. She tore her anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee in December, 2014. She missed the rest of that season and was granted a medical hardship waiver from the NCAA to play this past year.

Banham was the second-leading scorer (28.6) in Division I her senior year. She played 15 games for the Sun and made 20 of 49 field goals, including 13 three-pointers.

Jasmine Thomas is now Connecticut’s only true point guard.

“We’ve lost a bonafide 3-point shooter on a team that doesn’t have a lot to begin with,” Miller said. “That’s a bigger loss than having another point guard.

“As we continue to improve the way we’re playing, we’ve lost a person with the ability to create the spacing that we so covet with our offensive philosophy.”

Shooting guards Alex Bentley, Kelly Faris and rookie Courtney Williams will all likely run the point. Bentley, the starting off-guard, has done it before for the Sun.

It’ll be a tougher transition for Williams, acquired on June 25 from the Phoenix Mercury as part of a package for Kelsey Bone.

“Now (Williams) has to play and start to learn another position before fully understanding everything we do at her own position,” Miller said. “Now the reps slow down for Kelly at the wing because you’ve got to steal reps at practice at the point to get her up to speed. But they’re pros."

It’s not imperative that a team has a natural point guard, even though it’s coveted. The Detroit Shock, for instance, had wings Deanna Nolan and Katie Smith both direct the offense during the previous decade and won two WNBA titles doing so (2006, 2008).

“If you have a wing that can really handle the ball, then it’s an easier transition,” Thomas said. “You can have a two guard like a Deanna Nolan who’s a scorer, a great creator, such a great player in general, that having the ball in her hands makes things happen. And that’s how we’ve used Alex.”

n.griffen@theday.com