Caitlin Clark out against Sparks with Fever injury return uncertain

Caitlin Clark won’t have to worry about taking a fist to the throat on Saturday, but she’ll have to worry about something else.Fever head coach Stephanie White announced Clark is out with a back injury for Saturday’s game and had “no indication” of when the star would return. White also noted the Fever have a week off after Saturday for her to get treatment. “We’ll take this opportunity to get her treatment, get her healthy, get her back on the floor,” White told reporters at Fever practice Friday.“Long-term health and wellness is the most important thing.” Clark left the Fever’s loss to the Mercury on Wednesday in the second half, but it remains unclear when the injury happened, though the 2024 Rookie of the Year was first listed with a back injury in May. While White isn’t sure whether the plays had any impact on Clark’s health, she was aggravated postgame after two “cheap shots” on her player weren’t called fouls. “We have a generational talent and WNBA superstar who had two cheap shots [against her] right there that weren’t called,” White told reporters.

“Absolutely unacceptable.”“Absolutely disrespectful.We spent all offseason looking at officiating, and I still say the one thing that we keep asking for is consistency.

[Clark] is not called the same way as everybody else is called,” she added. It all stems from the Alyssa Thomas and Clark play, in which the Mercury star’s fist went into Clark’s neck before she stepped over the former Iowa standout.No fould was called, but the league adjusted the call on Thursday and gave Thomas a Flagrant Foul 2, a one-game suspension and a $1,000 fine for “recklessly making contact with her fist to the throat area of Caitlin Clark.”Clark, the first overall pick in 2024 out of Iowa, has dealt with multiple injuries throughout her career, and only played 13 games last year due to quad and groin injuries. Outside of injuries and inconsistency at times, Clark has bee...