Caitlin Clark is sitting out the Indiana Fever’s opening WNBA preseason game amid her struggle with a leg injury.
The Fever begin their preparations for the new campaign against the Washington Majestics in Indianapolis on Saturday, but star player Clark will not be involved.
Despite taking part in the warmups, Indiana officials decided it was not worth risking the 23-year-old’s fitness against Washington, with the WNBA season set to begin next weekend.
Clark is suffering from an issue with her left leg, which forced the team to list her as questionable heading into the game.
‘Just a little tightness,’ she said at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. ‘I’ll go through all our warmups and everything — and then they’ll decide if I’m good to go or not.’
Her absence on Saturday will come as a major disappointment to fans who bought tickets just to see the WNBA’s biggest star in action.
Caitlin Clark is sitting out the Indiana Fever’s opening WNBA preseason game due to injury
Nevertheless, local Fever beat writer Scott Agness has played down fears of Clark dealing with a long-term issue.
Agness said the Indiana sensation was ‘at practice and moving around just fine’, noting the Fever also play the Brazilian national team at the home of Clark’s alma mater – the Iowa Hawkeyes – on Sunday.
Fever coach Stephanie White also said: ‘This is more of an evaluating phase for us. Nobody is gonna play a ton of minutes; I want to make sure we get a true sense of where we are.’
It emerged earlier this week that Clark has employed an interesting tactic to continue improving her game ahead of her sophomore WNBA season.
The Fever star won Rookie of the Year in her debut season and averaged 19.2 points and 8.4 assists per game, as she led Indiana to the postseason and helped the W smash viewership records.
Now entering her second year as a pro, Clark has been working with newly-hired Fever coach White – and she made an interesting ask of the former Connecticut Sun coach.
As relayed by ESPN’s Alexa Philippou on SportsCenter, Clark recently sat down with White and her coaching staff to go over some of her film from last season.
And Clark even asked White if she could see the scouting report the Sun used against her last year, when White was still coaching them.
Connecticut managed to hold Clark well below her season averages in four meetings, as she scored 16.5 points and dished out just 3.8 assists per contest.
She also shot just 39.2 percent from the field and committed 25 total turnovers.
