She dealt with various groin injuries and a bone bruise on her left ankle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been a person that\u2019s gonna just rely on my work. I feel like it\u2019s certainly made me work harder. But that\u2019s also probably the part that kind of stunk about it is I felt like I put in so much time and so much energy going into last season, and then obviously only appeared in about 13 games and [for] some of those [I] probably wasn\u2019t as healthy as I probably should have been,\u201d Clark said. \u201cIt was kind of these nagging injuries that continued to build up and build up and dealt with one on top of the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Caitlin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/brings-ball-upcourt-training-camp-122987232.jpg\")
Caitlin Clark is pictured during a training camp for Team USA in December 2025. AP<\/p>\n
Clark suggested the constant ups and downs on the road to recovery were a mental strain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that probably almost played with my mind even more than knowing I was going to be out for a set period of time,\u201d she said. \u201cI was always trying to come back, and then I get hurt in another way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last meaningful game Clark played was July 15. <\/p>\n
She was sidelined for WNBA All-Star weekend in Indianapolis before being officially shut down for the season in August.<\/p>\n
A rehabilitation process can be isolating for an athlete. <\/p>\n
The majority of Clark\u2019s rehabbing journey during the season took place behind closed doors, often separate from her teammates.<\/p>\n
She watched the Fever\u2019s surprising run to the semifinals from the bench, wishing she could play and help her team in other ways beyond vocal encouragement.<\/p>\n
![\"Caitlin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/07-16-25-indiana-fever-108272921.jpg\")
Caitlin Clark reacts during the Fever\u2019s July 2025 game against the Liberty. Charles Wenzelberg<\/p>\n
Throughout the offseason, Clark has continued to work on improvements. <\/p>\n
She\u2019s played pickup games with former college players and current professionals in Indianapolis. <\/p>\n
The Fever\u2019s practice squad comes in and trains with Clark whether she\u2019s doing a skill workout or scrimmaging.<\/p>\n
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At a USA Basketball camp in December, Clark said she was 100 percent healthy but admitted she wasn\u2019t sure how long it would take for her to start feeling like herself again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first USA Basketball camp was a great checkpoint for me, and I felt really great,\u201d Clark said. \u201cHonestly, I was impressed with how it I felt. Sometimes, I felt like it maybe would take me a day or two to really get my first step back, but I feel like myself out there, so just relying on that and just reminding myself who I am and what I\u2019ve been. And I didn\u2019t lose that, so just continue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The recovery process has been leading up to Wednesday, when Clark will make her U.S. senior women\u2019s team debut alongside Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese and others.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s eager to get back to playing and moving forward in her career.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the first minute of running around on the court, I\u2019ll be just fine. But more than anything, just really excited,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI know how much work and how much time I put in to make sure my body\u2019s as healthy as it can be and to get back not only to a point where I feel like I\u2019m myself but [where] I feel like I\u2019m even better than where I was at the beginning of last season. And I started off the season really well before I was hurt and tried to play through being hurt more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Caitlin Clark doesn\u2019t typically feel butterflies when she takes the court moments before tipoff. But when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[1760,2839,99,434],"class_list":["post-513233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-indiana-fever","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}