It’s been a tough sophomore season for Caitlin Clark. Her second year as a WNBA pro should have built on last season’s success. It should have been another record-breaking season with phenomenal plays. Instead, Clark has been held back by injuries most of the season.
First, she had to miss time with a quad injury. Then, she injured her groin and even had to sit out the All-Star Game and 3-point contest in Indianapolis. In total, Clark has only played 13 games. Her numbers are down as well, especially her shooting percentages. So far, Clark is only shooting 36.7 percent from the field and 27.9 percent from three for the season.
Missing that much time is not easy for an athlete, especially a young one eager to compete and win at the highest level. Clark addressed the struggle of dealing with her injuries head-on in a recent interview.
“This is the first time I haven’t felt like a young body that can run around and sprint every day and just continue to do that,” Clark told CBS Sports. She also revealed that she speaks to a sports psychologist on the Fever’s staff frequently to help deal with the adversity.
Clark has never had to deal with many injuries
Clark has had lots of injury luck so far in her career. She played all 40 regular-season games plus the Fever’s two playoff games last season. She started all of them and played an average of over 30 minutes per game.
The Fever star’s resilience goes way beyond her WNBA career, too. Clark also never missed a game due to injury while playing for the Iowa Hawkeyes. She played a total of 139 games in college, averaging 34.8 minutes for her career with the Hawkeyes.
The fact that Clark never had to miss so much time due to injuries makes this even more difficult to deal with.
It will be difficult for the Fever to string together wins with Clark still out
Clark’s timeline for her return is still unclear. On one hand, the Fever should be desperate for Clark to return to the court. The team is not the same without her. While Aari McDonald marks a defensive improvement, she doesn’t provide the same offensive production as Clark and doesn’t have the same gravitational pull on defenses. Replacing Clark is a serious group effort, and the Fever haven’t always had enough.
At the same time, however, Clark needs to rest and recover fully before returning to the court. Otherwise, the Fever may lose her for the postseason as well.