{"id":446191,"date":"2025-12-14T09:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T09:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/446191\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T09:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T09:37:13","slug":"caitlin-clark-is-healthy-and-back-on-the-hardwood-with-team-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/446191\/","title":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark is healthy and back on the hardwood with Team USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clark only played in 13 games for the Fever during the 2025 season. She dealt with a groin injury that she suffered in a win over the Connecticut Sun on July 15, then tweaked her left ankle and was diagnosed with a bone bruise<\/a> after a workout in Phoenix in early August.<\/p>\n

When asked in August if the ankle injury would impact Clark\u2019s ability to return from her groin issue, a Fever spokesperson told The IX Basketball<\/a>, \u201cThere was no timeline or projected return to play, so it\u2019s impossible to say if it was impacted. So it remains the same: to give Caitlin as much time needed to ensure she comes back fully healthy, which everyday she is working hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IX Basketball, a 24\/7\/365 women\u2019s basketball newsroom powered by The Next
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The IX Basketball<\/a>: A basketball newsroom brought to you by The IX Sports<\/a>. 24\/7\/365 women\u2019s basketball coverage, written, edited and photographed by our young, diverse staff and dedicated to breaking news, analysis, historical deep dives and projections about the game we love.<\/p>\n

Clark intended to play again during the 2025 season \u2014 which ended with the Fever just five minutes from a trip to the WNBA Finals \u2014 but the recovery process was too long. She was ruled out for the season<\/a> in early September.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ankle kind of didn\u2019t allow me to really see where my groin was at. It was, I think, my second full-court workout back when we were in Phoenix, but I just went to make a move and unfortunately my ankle completely rolled all the way forward in probably one of the worst sprains I\u2019ve dealt with,\u201d Clark explained during her exit interview<\/a> in October. She added that her expected return to five-on-five play was going to be with Team USA.<\/p>\n

That proved to be correct as Clark hit the hardwood this week. Fever teammates Aliyah Boston<\/a> and head coach Stephanie White<\/a> are involved with the national team as well.<\/p>\n

\"IndianaIndiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (17) gets ready for practice for Team USA during training camp at Duke University in Durham, N.C., on Dec. 12, 2025. (Photo credit: USA Basketball)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels nice to finally be back to 100%,\u201d Clark told reporters on Friday. \u201cI did everything I could to try to be able to come back and be able to play for my team. But it just didn\u2019t really work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark was named a WNBA All-Star last season and was playing at a high level despite battling injuries even during some of the games she played. She averaged 16.5 points and 8.8 assists<\/a> per game for the Fever, who went 8-5 when Clark was available. That win rate would equate to a 27-win season and could have put Indiana in position to host a first-round playoff series.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Fever started on the road against the Atlanta Dream. They were undeterred, however, and defeated Atlanta before taking the eventual champion Las Vegas Aces to overtime in Game 5 of the semifinals<\/a> at Michelob Ultra Arena. It\u2019s easy to wonder what could have been possible had Clark been healthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave everything I could to possibly try to play, but my body just wasn\u2019t really letting me. And then I continued to rehab and now feeling back at 100%. Honestly, [it] took probably longer than I expected,\u201d Clark said. \u201cMy body\u2019s in a really good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women\u2019s Sports Daily<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women\u2019s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women\u2019s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!<\/p>\n

Clark went on to detail the new perspective she has after her first significant injury. Her view on leadership and understanding what other injured teammates are going through has changed. She hopes to check in on her banged-up teammates more often in the future with text messages and kind notes. Beyond her own health, that\u2019s Clark\u2019s biggest takeaway from everything that happened in her 2025 season.<\/p>\n

As for playing basketball? Clark did her thing for the first time in nearly six months. \u201cI felt like I was moving really well,\u201d she said. \u201cSo it was pretty satisfying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBecoming Caitlin Clark\u201d<\/strong> is out now!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Howard Megdal\u2019s newest book is here! \u201cBecoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar\u201d captures both the historic nature of Clark\u2019s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clark only played in 13 games for the Fever during the 2025 season. She dealt with a groin…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":446192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[233,1495,234,13117,58621,62,1348,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-446191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-caitlin-clark","9":"tag-fever","10":"tag-indiana-fever","11":"tag-injuries","12":"tag-injury-recovery","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-team-usa","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115717253281828956","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}