Caitlin Clark Sends Clear 5-Word Message on 'Best Recovery' From Injury
Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark has missed a total of 20 games throughout this WNBA season due to injury, while only being active for 13 contests.
18 of these games have been regular season contests, one of them was the 2025 WNBA Commissioner's Cup championship game against the Minnesota Lynx (which didn't count toward the regular season standings), and one was the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game.
The reason for these absences is several soft tissue injuries Clark has dealt with in her legs. These include a quad strain, a left groin injury, and her most recent right groin injury, which came in the final minute of Indiana's July 15 win against the Connecticut Sun.
Clark didn't miss a single game due to injury during her four seasons at the University of Iowa, and didn't miss any games as a WNBA rookie in 2024. Therefore, the process of injury recovery has been new to her.
Caitlin Clark Gets Clear About Crucial Aspect of Injury Recovery
Clark was interviewed by Sue Bird for an August 8 episode of Bird's Eye View. When speaking about the hardest aspects of Clark's constant injuries, Bird said to her, "I did joke [to a friend] that napping was a part of the job."
"Sleep is the best recovery," Clark responded by saying.
It's no secret that sleep is perhaps the most crucial thing any human can do, as there have been endless studies in the positive impact that adequate nightly sleep has on all people's physical, mental, and emotional produfcitivity and efficiency, let alone for high-functioning athletes.
Clark has spoken about how much she loves sleeping several times in the past. However, it seems that she's seeing the value of sleep in a whole new light as she looks to return to the court from her most recent injury.
When Will Caitlin Clark Be Back on the Court?
During an August 7 episode of IndyStar's Indiana Fever Insider Live podcast, Fever beat reporter Chloe Peterson said, "The most I know is... [Clark] has been running up and down full speed. As far as I know, she hasn't come back to practice yet. The last time I saw them in a practice capacity was on Tuesday.
"Caitlin was there for the first couple minutes when everybody was just warming up, and then after they officially started shootaround, she left with a trainer to do some individual rehab, recovery work," Peterson continued. "She's participating in the half-court contests before each game, it seems like. But it doesn't look like she's doing drills with the team as of yet."
Chloe Petersons gives the latest on what she knows regarding Caitlin Clark.
— Krysta (@Krysta____) August 7, 2025
Ya I think she won’t be back until end of August 👀 pic.twitter.com/HkVmuCgUcr
In other words, there's no clear indicator of when Clark will be returning. But her being back at some point this month seems likely.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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