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INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White said Friday that she hopes star Caitlin Clark’s injury-riddled second season will be a blip on the radar for her career and that Clark will learn from experiencing adversity so early as a pro.
“There’s a hunger and drive that comes with not having played and not wanting to do that again,” White said Friday, a day after Clark was officially ruled out for the season. “So what does that look like from a training perspective, what does that look like from a mentality perspective, from a preparation perspective, [is] just as much [impactful] as what you learn about the game and your teammates.”
Clark, the 2024 No. 1 pick, was limited to 13 games this year and had not played since July 15, when she suffered a right groin injury in the final minute of the Fever’s win over the Connecticut Sun. She had been sidelined earlier in the year with left quad and left groin injuries, and in an August workout suffered a bone bruise in her right ankle that she had to rehab concurrently with her groin.
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White said Friday that the team has had a “preliminary conversation” about what Clark’s continued rehab will look like through the end of the season, but will sit and talk more thoroughly about an offseason plan once the Fever season is done.
Clark had been “working her butt off to be able to get back,” White said, and the team’s recent road trip to the West Coast was a crucial opportunity for the Fever to see if they could get her on the floor with contact and build her endurance back to a high level in consecutive days, White said.
But with Indiana’s regular season ending Tuesday and a playoff berth far from guaranteed, the Fever felt they ran out of time.
“We just weren’t able to get to where we thought we needed for her to be able to participate at this level,” White said. “Some of that’s physical, in terms of the rehab and all of that, and some of that is also endurance and being able to play at the level that it takes, build back that endurance enough to play, because all of these games right now are like playoff games. There’s a sense of urgency and a level to which they’re being played.”
Before this season, Clark had never missed a game during her college career at Iowa or her rookie campaign in the WNBA, which ended with her earning all-WNBA first-team honors and finishing fourth in MVP voting. But a second season that started with so much promise instead saw Clark fail to appear in more than five consecutive games, sidelined for Indianapolis’ WNBA All-Star Festivities and ultimately miss the final eight weeks of the season.
“Just all the injuries that she’s had, and the amount of work she’s put in to position herself to play and then to be able to ultimately make this decision, there’s disappointment,” White said. “There’s the obvious frustration that’s come with not being healthy, really, for an entire season. But ultimately, I think the big picture is the most important thing, and those are conversations that we continue to have. And the message has continued to be that her long-term health and wellness, and her being 100% when she’s ready to go, is the most important thing.”
Clark is the fifth Fever player to be ruled out for the season due to injury, joining Aari McDonald (foot), Sydney Colson (knee), Sophie Cunningham (knee) and Chloe Bibby (knee). But Indiana (21-20) is still within reach of a second consecutive playoff berth and is competing alongside the Seattle Storm and Los Angeles Sparks for one of two remaining spots.
The Fever host the Chicago Sky on Friday before taking on the Washington Mystics on the road on Sunday and the Minnesota Lynx at home in their regular-season finale on Tuesday.
