SOUTH BEND − Everything about every afternoon this time of year should feel so wrong for Notre Dame women’s basketball forward Maddy Westbeld.

In a weird way, in a way Westbeld never imagined, it kind of feels so right. So needed. So necessary.

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For the last four years, it’s so often been about the next for Westbeld, a starter since she arrived from Fairmont High School in Kettering, Ohio. The next practice. The next film session. The next road trip. The next game. The next challenge. The next win.

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The next time she could step back on the court and do something she so loved, do something that she’s been doing since she was in the second grade.

Hoop.

It was always about the next, but what about the now? Westbeld spent so many days and weeks and months of her freshman and sophomore and junior and senior seasons chasing the next that she rarely took time to take a deep breath and be in the now.

It was always about basketball because, well, it’s always been about basketball. The game didn’t define Westbeld, certainly not away from Rolfs Hall or Purcell Pavilion, but it was close. The game was her and she was the game.

Until mid-September, when she couldn’t look forward to what was next in the weight room or the film room or on the basketball court. Next might not be for another few months as Westbeld rehabs and recovers from surgery to address a left foot issue that has lingered longer than she would like.

In not chasing the next, Westbeld has only the now. Her now. Without the game, who is she? As a person? As a player?

“I’m really thankful that I’m able to ask myself these questions,” Westbeld said last week during the team’s version of Media Day. “Like, who am I off the court and who am I as an observer? I really feel like I’m taking care of my little girl again if that makes sense.”

It makes total sense. On this day, as the Irish women prepared to practice, Westbled guessed that it had been since she was a little girl — first grade — since she last didn’t have any basketball afternoon obligation. No film. No lift. No pre-practice shooting routine. No grind of another day of books and basketball.

It has allowed her to take that deep breath, to look around at where she is now and appreciate everything. Appreciate it more than she had over her previous four seasons. Westbeld returned for her bonus COVID-19 year this season for one reason. To chase the program’s first national championship since 2018. There’s nothing left to add on her résumé.

She never realized that path would be far different than imagined. You know what? That’s good.

“I’ve been able to walk really slowly, and I’ve never done that before,” Westbeld said about life and not the left foot that often has her in a walking boot. “This year, I planned on going 100 mph.”

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This year, she must settle more for like 5 mph. Or 10. She can’t practice. She can’t play. She can’t be so consumed by the next, so she has no choice — and it’s a good choice — to focus on the now.

“At this point, where I’m trying to take really slow steps, really small steps, I’m finding beauty in that,” Westbeld said. “Everybody has to take some time and really accept taking care of themselves and really accept taking care of your mind and your body.”

This is Westbeld’s “me” time. It's not about points and rebounds and minutes and starts. It’s about being in the moment. Being in the now. Not focusing on what’s down the road next week or next month or next year. Embrace today. Then, tomorrow.

“I’m learning that I can be patient,” she said. “I can be patient with myself, and I can listen to my body.”

The 6-foot-3 Westbeld has started all 120 games she’s played in over the last four years. She’s missed one — last January because of a concussion — a fact that still stings. Injuries were something that happened to somebody else. She had long been the one plug and play (and play and play and play) constant in that program.

Injuries are part of the game, especially at Notre Dame.

Look around an Irish practice and there’s seemingly nobody who hasn’t been hit and hit hard by the injury hammer. Guard Olivia Miles hasn’t played since February 2023, after a serious knee injury. Wing Sonia Citron has missed time with a knee injury. Forward Cass Prosper missed nearly all of last season. Next to Westbeld on the bench during one practice sat KK Bransford and Kylee Watson, who also are out with injury issues.

Injuries happen. They just never happened to Westbeld. It’s as if the tread on one of her tires simply gave out after 3,626 minutes played. That happens.

“I remember when she first found out — telling her it’s going to be OK. Everything happens for a reason,” Citron said. “God’s got you. Just have faith. She’s going to be back in no time.”

Westbeld won’t put a timetable on her recovery — be back by this game — and won’t worry if a target date she keeps to herself comes and goes and the foot doesn’t feel right. She said last week that she hopes to return by early Atlantic Coast Conference play, which revs up in late December.

Maybe she’s back by then. Maybe it’s not until January. Maybe.

Until the moment’s right, it won’t be.

“Until my body says, ‘Let’s go,’” she said.

Until then, she plays only the long game of recovery and rehab. Of sitting in a chair and working on her handles. Of form shooting. Of doing what she can in the weight room. Of rehabbing her body and her mind and making sure that every step she takes back to the game is a good one. A slow one. A needed one.

To the point that when she steps back on the court, it will be something that it hadn’t been in too long — pain free. Is she injured? Yes, but in a way, no.

“For me, it’s really a healing,” she said. “I’m really fortunate and feel very blessed to be able to take this time to properly heal.”

With her media obligation done, Westbeld hobbled out to the Rolfs Hall lobby. She grabbed her bag, her water bottle and her phone. Practice was scheduled to start, ironically, in 21 minutes — her jersey number — but Westbeld wouldn’t take part in it.

Her day will come. Again.

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on Twitter: @tnoieNDI

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame women's basketball: Maddy Westbeld patient as injury heals