Basketball fans have been left distraught after discovering that A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum will miss the FIBA Women’s World Cup due to ‘health reasons’. The news was confirmed on Monday via a statement from USA Basketball, who also revealed that Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen have been called up as replacements.Wilson, the four-time WNBA MVP, has shouldered quite a workload in the first part of the season for the Las Vegas Aces and needed a break to rest for the playoffs. She was voted the most outstanding player of the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2022 World Cup. She will be sorely missed by the United States. Plum, meanwhile, has been dealing with a calf injury for most of the WNBA season and it still hasn’t 100 percent healed. She was a catalyst in the Paris Games gold-medal contest against France and sparked the Americans to the one-point victory. Iriafen and Citron were both part of US camps this past winter. Iriafen played on the American team that went to Puerto Rico and won the World Cup qualifier. A’ja Wilson, right, and Kelsey Plum, left will miss the FIBA World Cup due to ‘health reasons’ The likes of Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers are set to make their World Cup debutCitron had to miss that tournament because of an injury, so she’ll be making her national team debut in Germany.The USA have won every World Cup since finishing with the bronze medal in 2006. That World Cup saw American star Lisa Leslie pull out at the last minute because of a car accident that her uncle was in. Without her, the US fell to Russia in the semifinals.Without the two veteran players, the US will rely even more heavily on its youth movement – with the likes of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers are all set to make their World Cup debut during the tournament.The young stars will be joined by Olympic medalists Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young and Kahleah Copper.Rhyne Howard and Aliyah Boston will also be making their World Cup debuts to round out the team.The US opens against China on Friday. The Chinese team has a huge front line with 7-foot-3 Zhang Ziyu, 6-10 Han Xu and 6-7 Li Yueru. The two teams played for the World Cup title in 2022 in Australia.