Fever, Caitlin Clark vow to be ‘smarter’ with star’s reps after injury-plagued 2025
INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark has never asked for a break, and she’s rarely needed one. From her freshman year at Iowa through her rookie season with the Indiana Fever, she played in 181 straight games and captivated the basketball world along the way. Last year, however, Clark appeared in just 13 games due to various injuries and was forced to watch as Indiana nearly punched a ticket to the WNBA Finals without her.
“I got to be their biggest fan, and I think that was a great experience for me because through a lot of my career, everybody else is my biggest fan,” Clark said Sunday at the Fever’s first day of training camp. “That doesn’t mean I wasn’t cheering for my teammates (when healthy), but I was playing the most amount of minutes. I had the ball in my hands.
” Clark said she’s now “100 percent cleared” to play basketball and has been for a while. But Sunday marked the first time she participated in an official on-court Fever activity since she appeared in a game on July 15, 2025. She suffered a right groin strain in that contest — a Fever road win over the Connecticut Sun — and injured her left ankle during rehab, which knocked her out for the rest of the season.
Clark was back at the peak of her powers when she took home MVP honors for Team USA at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup qualifying tournament last month. The plan, according to a self-proclaimed wiser Clark, is to stay that way by acknowledging and embracing when she may need to dial it back during her third WNBA season. “I was talking to (Fever coach Stephanie White) a little bit, and I’m the person that doesn’t want to sit out a single rep,” Clark said.
“I want to be in there every single time. I just love competing, and I love playing. And none of that has changed, but I think just being a little bit smarter with my body and understanding what it takes.
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