How the Fever adjust to injuries to Colson, McDonald

The Indiana Fever were dealt a huge blow Friday with the news that injured guards Sydney Colson and Aari McDonald will miss the rest of the 2025 WNBA season.

Indiana, already without Caitlin Clark, who has not played since she injured her right groin in a game July 15, is down to nine players for Saturday’s game against the Chicago Sky.

Colson and McDonald both suffered the season-ending injuries Thursday in a blowout loss at Phoenix. Colson suffered a torn ACL in her left knee in the first quarter; McDonald suffered a broken bone in her right foot during the fourth quarter.

With five weeks left in the regular season, the Fever are 17-14 and sit in fifth place in the WNBA standings through Thursday’s games. The top eight teams advance to the postseason.

We look at how the injuries impact Indiana’s backcourt, the Fever’s starting five and playoff hopes.

What does this mean for the Fever’s potential playoff seed and title pursuit?

The 2025 season has been a roller coaster for the Fever between injuries, inconsistency on the court and the midseason departure of DeWanna Bonner. This feels like the latest blow and, perhaps, the most devastating.

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By all accounts, Colson and McDonald are beloved teammates in a close-knit Fever group. McDonald was a brilliant midseason addition to an Indiana squad that sought point guard depth — exacerbated when Clark first missed time due to injury — and brought a defensive energy the team desperately needed. Even in more limited minutes, Colson provided some of the same qualities and, most importantly, veteran championship experience to surround the Fever’s young core.

The Fever had started to find a groove with five consecutive wins prior to recent losses to the Sparks and the Mercury. McDonald, in particular, was crucial to that newfound identity. But now Indiana will be forced to pivot again to find some help at the point, even when Clark returns. It’ll be a tall task ahead to find someone who is as impactful and who fits as well as McDonald did.

At their best, and healthiest, the Fever still have a strong top six — Clark, Kelsey Mitchell, Aliyah Boston, Natasha Howard, Sophie Cunningham and Lexie Hull — including one of the best trios in the league in Clark, Mitchell and Boston. But with the questions surrounding Clark’s health (when she returns and how she plays when she gets back), and now the concerns over who they’ll have behind her, the Fever’s margin for error for a deep playoff push got much slimmer — all while teams like the Lynx, Liberty, Mercury and Storm made midseason moves giving them more depth heading into the playoffs.

What will the Fever’s starting five look like? How does the backcourt adjust?

For now, there’s going to be even more on the shoulders of Mitchell, Cunningham and Hull, the team’s sole remaining guards. The Fever could bring Hull into the starting five alongside Mitchell, Cunningham, Howard and Boston, and hope that Mitchell and Cunningham can juggle ball handling duties in the short term.

Indiana will look to bring in a hardship player but can do so only after a player(s) misses a game. That means the earliest a newcomer could join the Fever would be for Tuesday’s game against Dallas.

If there’s any consolation, it’s that the Fever’s upcoming schedule is fairly favorable. They host three straight games against teams in the bottom quarter of the standings (the similarly injury-riddled Chicago on Saturday, Dallas on Tuesday and Washington next Friday) before traveling to Connecticut, which is in last place, a week from Sunday.

Who will the Fever look to sign?

It’s not ideal to have to bring in a new player two-thirds of the way into the season, especially a point guard who would be tasked with running the offense. Even less ideal, the Fever are looking to make this move a mere hours after the trade deadline. But Indiana has no choice at this point.

Due to league rules, the Fever won’t be able to sign a hardship player until after tomorrow’s game against Chicago. They will have nine players available for that contest. https://t.co/Bogt3gGO3a

— Alexa Philippou (@alexaphilippou) August 8, 2025

There are some free agents who could be logical candidates: Jaylyn Sherrod was recently waived by the Liberty to make room for Emma Meesseman. Grace Berger, the Fever’s 2023 No. 7 draft pick, is currently with the Wings on her third seven-day contract, and either has to be signed to a rest-of-season contract or be released, which could work in the Fever’s favor.

Indiana could also seek to sign a more experienced guard, such as Odyssey Sims or Shey Peddy, both of whom last played in the league for the Sparks this past June.

What’s the latest on when Caitlin Clark might return?

Clark has been limited to individual rehab and workouts and has yet to return to team activities. Even when that happens, she’d presumably need time to ramp up to full 5-on-5 play. So there’s no indication that Clark’s return is particularly imminent.

Do these injuries change Clark’s timeline? There wasn’t as much urgency for her to return just a few days ago, when Indiana was rolling as the winner of five straight games. But the team has also been adamant that Clark’s long-term health is of utmost concern, so the organization might opt to ride the wave of McDonald’s and Colson’s absences and manage with the players they have available, including any new additions next week.