{"id":683742,"date":"2026-05-21T08:14:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/683742\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T08:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:14:18","slug":"caitlin-clarks-injury-status-may-prompt-wnba-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/683742\/","title":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark\u2019s Injury Status May Prompt WNBA Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WNBA tipped off its 30th season on the first weekend of May, and I wrote right here for Newsweek<\/a> that Indiana<\/a> Fever All-Star guard Caitlin Clark<\/a>\u2019s injury<\/a>-riddled 2025 would, fairly or unfairly, color every little move she made this season.<\/p>\n

So far, I\u2019ve been proven correct.<\/p>\n

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Clark raised eyebrows when she made her way back to the tunnel to get her \u201cback adjusted,\u201d as she later said<\/a>, during the Fever\u2019s season-opening loss to Dallas<\/a>. The 2024 No. 1 overall pick has insisted that she\u2019s healthy and feeling great, and she hadn\u2019t missed any time in the Fever\u2019s first four games \u2014 averaging 24.3 points and nine assists.<\/p>\n

So, while it felt unusual for a 24-year-old to get her back adjusted several times mid-game, it wasn\u2019t a cause for concern.<\/p>\n

\"INDIANAPOLIS,INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA \u2013 MAY 17: Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever<\/a> against the Seattle Storm<\/a> at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on May 17 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Then, the Fever abruptly changed Clark\u2019s injury designation about an hour before their Wednesday night game against the Portland Fire<\/a>. On Tuesday, the Fever reported no injuries for the game, but suddenly, Clark was ruled out with a back injury.<\/p>\n

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Fever head coach Stephanie White told reporters that Clark hadn\u2019t participated in Tuesday\u2019s practice and instead received treatment for her back. After waking up Wednesday morning \u201cwith stiffness<\/a>,\u201d she was ruled out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the time to take a chance. We just really wanna be cautious,\u201d White said at her pregame presser<\/a>, noting that she wasn\u2019t sure if there would be concern moving forward.<\/p>\n

White added, \u201cShe\u2019s healthy. We\u2019re not managing anything. This is just a back issue that we want to make sure we give the time to be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven White said Clark did not practice yesterday, and there was no indication Clark was dealing with an ailment until she was ruled out 100 minutes before tip tonight, would imagine this is something the league may take a look at,\u201d ESPN\u2019s Alexa Philippou wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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WNBA injury reports are updated in 15-minute increments throughout a game day, as seen here<\/a>. The league\u2019s official policy reads as follows:<\/p>\n

\u201cWNBA teams must report information concerning player injuries, illnesses, other medical conditions, or rest for all WNBA games. By 5 p.m. local time the day before a game (other than the second day of a back-to-back), teams must designate a participation status and identify a specific injury, illness, other medical condition, or other reason for any player whose participation in the game may be affected for any reason. For the second game of a back-to-back, teams must report the above information by 1 p.m. local time on the day of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark missed all but 13 games last season due to a quad strain<\/a> suffered last May and two separate groin injuries. She last played on July 15 and was officially ruled out<\/a> by the team on Sept. 4. Despite limited playing time, Clark earned her second All-Star selection.<\/p>\n

Prior to the 2025 season, Clark had not missed a game in her four-year collegiate career at Iowa or her rookie WNBA season in Indiana<\/a>. So far this season, Clark has averaged 24.3 points and 9.0 rebounds across four games.<\/p>\n

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Start your unlimited Newsweek trial<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA tipped off its 30th season on the first weekend of May, and I wrote right here…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,735,48,7236,5904,2803,104252,1611,82,2807,630,63200],"class_list":["post-683742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-canada","tag-dallas","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-fever","tag-portland-fire","tag-seattle-storm","tag-sports","tag-stephanie-white","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-teams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}