Despite a panel of doctors denying her a medical waiver to opt out of the upcoming WNBA season, reigning league MVP Elena Delle Donne will receive her full salary. 

Washington Mystics coach and general manager Mike Thibault said Wednesday that Delle Donne will be paid this season, even if she is only doing rehab from the back surgery she had in January and doesn't play.

"The fact of the matter is the Mystics organization will never put Elena's – or any other of our players' – health and well-being in jeopardy at any time," Thibault said.

Delle Donne revealed in a first-person essay published by The Players' Tribune that she takes 64 pills each day to battle chronic Lyme Disease and that her immune system has been greatly compromised. 

Washington Mystics forward Elena Delle Donne speaks at a press conference where she was named the 2019 WNBA most valuable player. (Photo: Nick Wass, AP)

The league's decision resulted in "sadness, anger, disappointment" and a feeling she was being forced to choose between her health and a paycheck.

“To think that a panel of doctors who have never treated me can just come back and say, ‘No, you’re fine, you’re good to go.’ That’s confusing to me,” Delle Donne told USA TODAY Sports in a phone interview Wednesday. “I don’t know why it’s not enough for just my Lyme doctor to say it’s not safe."

Thibault said Delle Donne told the Mystics her exemption had been denied, but the team couldn't announce it would pay her for the season unless she made a public statement first. 

However, the panel's official ruling still leaves some aspects of Delle Donne's situation unresolved, such as whether or not she must do her rehab work at the Mystics' facility or at home – and whether or not she would eventually need to join the team in the WNBA's bubble in Bradenton, Florida.

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