The Fever made the announcement on Thursday evening. Clark last played on July 15 against the Connecticut Sun — she exited that game with less than one minute to go with a right groin injury, and it was announced soon after that she would miss All-Star weekend festivities.
Since then, small updates about Clark’s progress came sporadically. On July 24, the Fever shared that Clark had undergone further medical evaluations earlier that week related to her groin, and the team set their priorities on her long-term health and well-being. No timetable for Clark’s recovery was provided at the time.
The star guard would speak at WNBA All-Star weekend, just after the injury. “When the injury happened, it was pretty frustrating considering I knew what the coming days were going to hold for myself,” Clark said of her injury just before the All-Star game itself. She had been looking forward to participating in the weekend, with the festivities being held in Indianapolis.
Want even more women’s sports in your inbox?
Subscribe now to The IX Sports and receive our daily women’s sports newsletter covering soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, hockey and gymnastics from our incredible team of writers. That includes Basketball Wednesday from founder and editor Howard Megdal.
Readers of The IX Basketball now save 50% on their subscription to The IX.
Later, she discussed her injury and recovery. “Certainly unfortunate,” Clark said. “Once tomorrow comes around, we’ll completely shift my focus to getting as healthy as possible.”
To that point, it had been a frustrating season for Clark. She dealt with quad tightness during training camp and the preseason, then for the first time since the start of her college career, she was forced to sit out and miss time after suffering a quad strain in late May. The quad injury caused Clark to sit out for five games.
When Clark returned in mid-June against the New York Liberty, she had a new perspective on the game. Watching from the sidelines had helped her better understand her team — to the tune of 32 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists in her return. “I think the hardest part is when you begin to feel really good. And then it’s just a process of working yourself back into actually getting up and down and getting out there with my teammates,” Clark explained about the difficult parts of returning from that injury.
Five games later, Clark was injured again. She was feeling pain after a win against the Seattle Storm and reported it to Fever officials. That led to an MRI, which revealed that Clark had a left groin injury. She missed time and sat out for five games — including the Fever’s Commissioner’s Cup title game win over the Minnesota Lynx.
Clark was back in action on July 9 against the Golden State Valkyries. But after four games in one week, that fateful game in Connecticut happened. It was her final appearance of the season, despite every wish for the contrary.
“That’s the hope. The hope is that she’s back,” Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White said on Aug. 17 when asked if Clark would return this season.
The start-then-stop nature of Clark’s season was challenging for the young star. She kept progressing and has been doing some five-on-zero work in recent days. During her recovery, she suffered a bone bruise in her left ankle during a workout in Phoenix. At the time, a league source told The IX that the Iowa product was working very hard to return.
But as time passed, the window for Clark’s return only got smaller. This late in the season, the Fever have just five days left before their final regular season battle and three games remaining on the schedule. Finding time for Clark to get her conditioning back up to game level, and go through numerous contact practices — something White shared was a goal — became a challenge.
“I want to see her in practice. Live in practice. I want to see her continue to work to, not just build endurance, but to be able to handle contact 94-feet as it’s going to be in game,” White said of Clark on Aug. 26. “And to be able to do that and sustain from an endurance standpoint. And that’s going to take multiple practices to make sure that there’s no regression.”
“Becoming Caitlin Clark” is out now!
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
When White was asked about the amount of practice time the Fever had left this late in the season made it clear some of those sessions might not be full team practices. But now, with the playoffs beginning in just 10 days, it’s nearly impossible for Clark to have enough court time to return at the right level of health.
White shared on Thursday that the Fever wanted to use their recent west coast road trip to evaluate Clark’s recovery. The head coach then explained that after practice today, Fever leadership was set to meet and establish a direction when it came to the star guard’s status for the season. They wanted to get a clear answer. In the end, that answer ended up being to rule Clark out for the year.
“She hasn’t been able to do a whole lot of contact,” White said. “She’s been able to get up and down five-on-zero, been able to get shooting, but hasn’t been able to get a whole lot of contact.”
Six hours after White addressed the media, Clark’s season was officially declared over. The star guard appeared in just 13 games this season. She averaged 16.5 points and 8.8 assists per game in those outings, numbers strong enough to be named an All-Star. The Indiana Fever went 8-5 when she was available.
Your business can reach over 3 million women’s sports fans every single month!
Here at The IX Basketball and The IX Sports, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women’s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, reach out to our team at BAlarie@theixsports.com to discuss ways to work together.
Her confirmed absence is a blow for the Fever. The team has learned more about playing sans Clark in the 28 games she has missed, but the group is still worse without her. Their net rating drops from +9.74 with Clark on the floor to +0.16 when she is on the bench, per pbpstats.
The Fever have three games left, and their magic number to make the postseason is three. They still control their own destiny. But things will continue to be challenging without Clark, and now it’s official. She won’t be a secret weapon in the final stretch.
Clark played in all 40 games during her rookie season, but less than one-third of that in year two. Her long-term health now becomes a major story line for the Indiana Fever going forward.
