For the first time since she was in high school, Caitlin Clark will miss regular-season action. And she won’t return for at least a couple of weeks .
The Indiana Fever announced Monday that Clark had suffered a left quad strain and that she’ll miss at least two weeks while recovering from the injury.
‘I don’t know when it happened,’ Fever coach Stephanie White said, according to the Indianapolis Star. ‘I know (after the Liberty game) we got a message that something was going on with her leg and they were getting an MRI, and then we got the word.’
Clark previously missed Indiana’s preseason opener against the Washington Mystics earlier this month due to a left quad injury. She had made enough progress in her recovery to play in the Fever’s regular-season opener against the Chicago Sky on May 17, but just over a week later, a similar issue has popped back up and will cause her to miss more time. White said this left quad strain is a new injury, however.
The two-week timeline the Fever provided means Clark will miss a minimum of four games: at the Washington Mystics on Wednesday, May 28; a home game vs. the Connecticut Sun on Friday, May 30; a home game vs. the Mystics on June 3, and a rematch against Angel Reese and the Sky on June 7.
‘Certainly we’d rather have it early than late,’ White said. ‘It’s a great opportunity for our team to find an identity. It’s a great opportunity for our team to play in a different way. And I also think it’s a great opportunity for Caitlin to watch the game from the sideline and to grow and almost like a coaching kind of mindset, and see some different things that we might be talking about on film, addressing in practice, to see it develop in live action.’
Through four games, the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year is averaging 19 points, six rebounds and 9.3 assists per game to start her sophomore campaign.
The Fever are 2-2 and seventh in the WNBA standings as of Monday.
