The Indiana Fever suffered a major blow this week when it was announced that star guard Caitlin Clark would miss the remainder of the season due to injury. The Fever are in the midst of a heated playoff race alongside the Seattle Storm and Los Angeles Sparks, and it’s sure to be an uphill climb without Clark in the lineup. Prior to the Fever’s game against the Chicago Sky on Friday, head coach Stephanie White explained what led to the decision to sideline Clark for the remainder of the year, as per Chloe Peterson of The Indy Star.
“Just having a conversation with her, and collaborating, and we knew that West Coast road trip was going to be a big one to see where we could get and how far we could get,” White said. “She’s been working her butt off to be able to get back, and we’ve kind of run out of time to be able to do it in a safe way.”
“I think we’ve all been very open and upfront about her long-term health and wellness. That’s the most important thing. To be in a position that you need to be in to play, we just ran out of time to get her there,” White continued.
Caitlin Clark’s second season with the Fever has been unfortunately marred by injury. She suffered a quad injury earlier in the season that caused her to miss five games. She came back against the New York Liberty in early June in style, but ended up being sidelined again for another five games after playing in five straight games.
The groin injury was re-aggravated back in mid-July and Clark has been out since then. She was selected to her second consecutive All-Star appearance, but was unable to play due to the injury.
In total, Clark appeared in only 13 games this season at a little over 31 minutes per game. She was averaging 16.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 8.8 assists and 1.6 steals with splits of 36.7 percent shooting from the field, 27.9 percent shooting from the three-point line and 82 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
