Caitlin Clark injury: Could Fever face punishment from WNBA over team's handling of star guard's back issue?
Caitlin Clark was a late scratch from Wednesday's game.
Despite not being present on the injury report Tuesday, Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark did not play in the team’s game against the Portland Fire on Wednesday. Two hours before the contest, Clark was ruled out due to a back injury. What happened next could potentially open up the team to punishment from the league.
Clark’s injury was initially reported as “ a strategic management plan ,” according to Fever beat writer Scott Agness. In other words, the Fever were using load-management strategies to rest Clark after the team played four games in eight days. But — as the NBA showed — sitting healthy players for load-management reasons is generally frowned upon by the league.
If the Fever were only holding out Clark to manage her reps, the WNBA likely wouldn’t be happy about that. Because of that, Fever coach Stephanie White was forced to go into damage control before and after the game, a 90-73 win by the Fever. Ahead of the contest, White denied the team was using load management to rest, but also downplayed the injury .
“She's healthy. We're not managing anything. This is just a back issue that we want to make sure we give the time to be ready.