The 2025 WNBA season was perhaps the most anticipated in the league’s existence. Caitlin Clark brought in an entirely new fan base due to her historic rookie season. She was on pace to continue her dominance in her sophomore campaign but experienced a minor setback that will pause those plans.
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Clark will be out of commission for at least two weeks with a left quad strain. It’s uncertain when the injury occurred. Clark played 38 minutes in a loss to the defending WNBA champion New York Liberty. She seemed fine while on the court, but MRI testing afterward revealed the injury.
This is a completely new experience for Clark, considering it’s the first substantial injury of her entire basketball career. The last time Clark missed a game was in 2017 when she sat out during her sophomore year at Dowling Catholic High School with a sprained ankle.
A new set of circumstances requires a certain level of attentiveness. WNBA legend Sue Bird knows far too well what goes into injury recovery. She sat out the entire 2013 and 2019 seasons due to knee surgeries.
Luckily, Clark doesn’t have to reach those extremes to return to the court. Nonetheless, Bird views Clark’s injury through a specific lens, one that introduces an NBA superstar as an example.
“We just saw it with Steph Curry,” Bird said on the A Touch More podcast. “You don’t think he would have been playing? It was the playoffs. This is not something you can rush.”
Clark is a basketball junkie as her track record shows. The Indiana Fever star needs to develop a healthy balance of work and rest.
Since the invention of the sport in 1891, there hasn’t been a basketball player who has ignored rest and continued to perform at an elite level. Eventually, the human body will break down.
Bird’s cohost Megan Rapinoe reiterated this sentiment in her assessment of Clark’s injury. “This doesn’t seem like a huge [injury], but I would just say take your time and recover fully,” Rapinoe said.
Unlike Curry’s situation, Clark isn’t in the middle of a playoff series. The sense of urgency to return in the regular season in comparison to the postseason is significantly different. Despite that fact, Curry took time to rest, at the expense of the Golden State Warriors’ championship hopes.
Bird implores Clark to follow in Curry’s footsteps. To the dismay of the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year, there are heavy implications to missing an extended period.
The Fever are currently 2-3 on the season and fighting for a playoff position. Currently, they hold the eighth and final playoff spot in this early portion of the season. Indiana doesn’t want to fall behind the 8-ball while Clark is out.
Forcing Clark to help propel the team in an uphill battle immediately after her return is not a position the team wants to be in. This stretch without Clark will speak volumes to the character and ability of this Fever roster.
