Caitlin Clark spoke to reporters on Saturday ahead of the USA women’s basketball team tipping off in the FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament at San Juan, Puerto Rico. The team is currently holding a minicamp in Miami to prepare for its first game Wednesday versus Senegal.

When Clark takes the court for Team USA, it will be the first in-game action she’s seen in approximately eight months. She last played for the Indiana Fever on July 15 before missing the rest of the season with groin injuries and later a bone bruise in her left ankle.

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Clark also began the season struggling with a quad strain that sidelined her for two weeks. She admitted that trying to work through those injuries may have resulted in her playing when she wasn’t full healthy.

“That’s probably the part that kind of stunk about it,” Clark said, via reporter Tony East. “I felt like I put in so much time and so much energy going into last season and then obviously I appeared in only about 13 games. And some of those, probably wasn’t as healthy as I should’ve been.”

In her 13 games for the Fever last season, Clark averaged 16.5 points, 8.8 assists and 5 rebounds per game. She shot 28% on 104 3-point attempts.

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As frustrating as the injuries were, Clark took consolation from not sustaining a more serious issue, like tearing a knee ligament or Achilles tendon.

“It’s not like I hurt my knee or tore my Achilles, or something like that, knock on wood,” she added. “It was these kind of nagging injuries that would build up and build up, and dealt with one on top of the other.

“I think that … played with my mind even more than knowing I would be out for a set period of time. I was always trying to come back and always trying to come back, and then I’d get hurt in another way. ”

However, Clark was relieved to take the court for Team USA practices and quickly felt comfortable, even better than she expected.

“I think the first USA camp was a great checkpoint for me and I felt really great,” she said. “Honestly, I was impressed with how with it I felt. Sometimes, I thought maybe it would take me a day or two to really get my first step back. But I felt like myself out there … just remind myself of who I am, what I’ve been and I didn’t lose that.”

Once she felt healthy, Clark said that her main focus has been trying to restore her conditioning before playing in competitive settings.

After Senegal, Team USA will face Puerto Rico the next day. The U.S. will then face Italy (March 14), New Zealand (March 15) and Spain (March 17) with tip-off times for those four games to be announced.

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Earlier this week, the team also announced that Monique Billings and Rae Burrell would replace Aliyah Boston and Sonia Citron, who suffered lower-body injuries during the Unrivaled season.