INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark said ahead of the Indiana Fever’s game against Golden State on Friday that it was her decision that caused her to miss the Fever’s game against Portland on Wednesday.
“At the end of the day, it’s me and my confidence,” Clark said. “Then, obviously I have a great team around me. It’s not only me, like, I trust our medical staff a lot, I have my own personal people that have really helped me too.”
The Fever originally had a clean injury report that Tuesday ahead of the game against Portland. Clark was not declared out on the Fever’s injury report until about 100 minutes before the game on Wednesday, raising questions about the Fever’s injury reporting practices.
The Fever then received a warning from the WNBA for inaccurate injury reporting surrounding Clark’s back injury on Thursday, as the league determined her status should have been updated, even to questionable or probable, earlier in the day. Clark did not practice on Tuesday, getting treatment for her back instead, and woke up with soreness on Wednesday.
Fever coach Stephanie White said “for what?” when asked her reaction to the warning pregame, then, after a follow up asking why that’s her reaction, responded with “because we did things the right way.”
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The league mandates all teams to provide designations for “any player whose participation in the game may be affected for any reason” by 5 p.m. the day before a game. Those designations can be probable (75% chance of playing), questionable (50%), or doubtful (25% chance), and teams are required to update the report as statuses change throughout the day of the game.
Clark was declared probable Thursday ahead of Friday’s game, then upgraded to available. Ahead of the game, Clark gave reporters an impassioned overview of how she went through the two days leading up to the game on Wednesday.
“I woke up Tuesday, I was here, I got treatment as I’ve done many practices before, as many of my teammates have done, had every intention of playing, didn’t indicate I wasn’t going to play, approached Wednesday, the day of our game, as if I was 100% playing,” Clark said. “Woke up (Wednesday), felt a little sore, texted our training staff, texted my personal physio … then I had PT at home.
“Then I came down here at 1 o’clock and we tried to do everything we can. Got on the court, I lifted, went through a hard workout, and I actually went back and looked, because all these narratives are going crazy online about when I told my mom I wasn’t gonna play the game, 4:47. You guys found out at 5:20, so one of the most important people in my life found out 40 minutes before you guys.”
Clark has been managing ongoing back issues this season after she missed all but 13 games last year with various soft tissue injuries. Her back “gets out of line pretty quickly,” she said ahead of the season opener, and she has been using a heat therapy pad on her back while on the bench and has gone back to the tunnel during games in order to get adjustments.
After missing the game on Wednesday, she said pregame on Friday that “maybe I’ll need to be listed as soreness on every injury report.”
“These are the best players in the world, and if I don’t feel 100% confident in my body on game five of the year, I don’t know if that’s really worth it in that scenario,” Clark said. “I want to play every single game, I want to play 44 games in a season, I’m doing everything I can to do that by putting my body in my best position I can, and I feel really good, and really confident in my body, but there’s moments where I still struggle a little bit, and I get in my head and things like that, and I’m sore, and that’s just the reality of it.”
Chloe Peterson is the Indiana Fever beat reporter for IndyStar. Reach her at chloe.peterson@indystar.com or follow her on X at @chloepeterson67. Get IndyStar’s Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter. Subscribe to IndyStar TV: Fever for in-depth analysis, behind-the-scenes coverage and more.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Caitlin Clark explains why she was a late scratch due to a back injury before Fever win vs Fire
Reporting by Chloe Peterson, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
