Kevin Tresolini

The News Journal

Delle Donne is expected to play for the Sky on Thursday night

Elena Delle Donne will, for the third time in four years, attempt to brush aside what has been the only real hindrance to her stellar basketball career on Thursday night.

Chronic Lyme disease symptoms – fatigue, achiness and a new fiend, tremors -- have caused Delle Donne to miss 17 of the Chicago Sky's last 18 WNBA games.

"This one was a little tougher," the Ursuline Academy and University of Delaware product told The News Journal on Wednesday. "It was the same type of feeling, like fatigue and muscle aches, but I was also getting other symptoms, too. Like the brain fog was a lot stronger, where it's hard to remember things or comprehend much. I was also having tremors, which I've never had before. I was shaky all over, especially my hands, when I was playing. It was just not good.

"I've been able to get rid of the tremors and some other things, but other stuff I'm going to have to play through."

Delle Donne, the 6-foot-5 guard/forward who was 2013 WNBA rookie of the year, expects to play Thursday when the Sky and New York Liberty tip off at 7 p.m. at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. The game will be telecast on NBATV.

"I don't know how many minutes, probably not a ton," Delle Donne said by phone from Chicago. "But I'm at least going to play a little bit."

The Sky has missed Delle Donne, who is averaging a team-best 21.2 points per game. The team is 5-12 in the games she has missed.

Delle Donne had been back home in Wilmington receiving treatment before returning to Chicago late last week. The Sky played road games last Friday, Sunday and Tuesday, so Wednesday was the first time she had been with her coaches and teammates.

"I haven't practiced with the team or played in a while," said Delle Donne. The Sky only had a film session and walk-through practice Wednesday.

"I haven't really felt well enough to do too much so I'm probably going to be pretty out of shape. I'm not even 100 percent healthy at this point but it's enough that I can get back and finish the season off. I definitely have turned the corner a good amount but, after this season, I'm going to have to go home and get more treatment."

Delle Donne believes she contracted Lyme, a bacterial infection caused by the bite of a deer tick, in 2008 but wasn't aware and it went untreated, causing the problems that have plagued her since. They surfaced her sophomore season at Delaware, when she missed 12 games. As a senior in 2012-13, she missed six more, each time dealing primarily with fatigue, often describing the symptoms as flu-like.

Delle Donne appeared in Chicago's first eight games this season, scoring double-figure points and playing at least 30 minutes in the first seven. The Sky started a best-ever 5-1, despite guard Epiphanny Prince and center Sylvia Fowles being sidelined with injuries.

In the eighth game, however, an away game played the day after a home game, Delle Donne scored seven points and played 25 minutes in a 97-59 loss at Atlanta.

"That kind of depleted my body a little bit but I'm thinking the infections were on the rise anyway,'' Delle Donne said, "so it was probably going to happen no matter what."

She then missed five games, returned to score 13 points in 17 minutes of a 79-69 loss at Connecticut, but has missed the 12 games since. She also missed the WNBA All-Star Game July 20 in Phoenix after being the Eastern Conference's top vote-getter.

Blood tests have shown Delle Donne suffers from Lyme "co-infections," which are different tick-borne contagions that have specific indicators and require different treatments, she said. Her therapy has included both nutritional and medicinal approaches.

For several years, Delle Donne has received treatment at Integrative Health Consults LLC in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It specializes in treating patients with tick-borne illnesses and is owned and operated by nurse practitioner Rita Rhoads. Attempts to reach Rhoads were unsuccessful.

Boosted by Delle Donne's arrival, the Sky enjoyed its first winning season in franchise history last year and finished in first place in the Eastern Conference before being swept in a best-of-three first-round playoff series by fourth-place Indiana.

The WNBA also benefited. Television ratings climbed by 28 percent in 2013 as the league touted its "Three to See" rookie triumvirate of Delle Donne, Phoenix's Brittney Griner and Tulsa's Skylar Diggins.

Delle Donne's absence has been equally impactful from a competitive standpoint. The Sky enters Thursday's game in fifth place among the six Eastern Conference teams at 10-16. But, with eight regular-season games remaining, it can still make the playoffs and take a run at the league title.

Even so, the Sky's average home attendance of 6,729 is an increase of 1.6 percent from this stage last season, according to ChicagoBusiness.com.

"We definitely still have a chance," Delle Donne said. "Luckily the East is just very competitive right now and everybody is just a game behind each other. I'm going to give whatever I can to help us get some wins, whether it's pretty or not, just try to find a way.

"I still think I can definitely make an impact, even if I'm 90 percent, 80 percent."

At Delaware, Delle Donne scored 28 points in 34 minutes in a loss at Hofstra her sophomore year after returning from her first Lyme-related absence. In her first game back as a senior, she grinded out 34 minutes and scored 19 points in a 69-53 loss to No. 9-ranked Maryland.

And as soon as Delle Donne's WNBA season ends, she has training camp in September for the U.S. national team in Annapolis, Maryland, where the roster for the 2014 FIBA World Championships Sept. 27-Oct. 5 in Turkey will be chosen.

"Hopefully I'll be healthy enough for it," she said.

The entire experience, Delle Donne said, has been difficult.

"It's just been extremely frustrating, just because this isn't the first time," she said. "This has been a five-year fight and, unfortunately, there's no cure so, at this point, it's going to be a lifetime fight . . . It's just really frustrating to know how far behind we are with this disease."

Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @kevintresolini.