Chronic pain has forced Katie Borowicz to leave the game she loves.
Borowicz, the guard from Roseau who just finished her redshirt freshman season with the Gophers women's basketball team, announced that she has decided to retire for medical reasons.
"Dear basketball, the love that I have for you is beyond words,'' Borowicz said on social media Wednesday. "You've given me everything and more, but our time has come to an end. My decision to medically retire is the most difficult and painful one I've ever had to make.''
An early high school graduate who joined the Gophers midway through the 2020-21 season, Borowicz sat out last season after having surgery to relieve pressure on her brain.
Extensive testing had produced a diagnosis of Chiara malformation. Borowicz's brain was normal-sized, but her skull was too small, creating pressure that caused part of her brain to be pushed into the spinal canal, constricting the nerves and causing the formation of a cyst on her spine, producing pain down her legs.
Borowicz had surgery Nov. 1, 2022, when doctors shaved off a part of her skull at the base, cutting through tissue to relieve the pressure and allow fluid to flow more freely.
It was just last summer that Borowicz, back on the court, was expressing her hope that problem was behind her.
Ultimately, unfortunately, it was not.