The WNBA simply cannot be spoken about now without mentioning Caitlin Clark.
The 23-year-old, who is only in her sophomore season, changed the league as soon as she heard her name called out by WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert as the first overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft.
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Despite being named a 2025 WNBA All-Star captain alongside Minnesota Lynx superstar, and MVP frontrunner Napheesa Collier, after receiving the most fan votes in WNBA history, Clark’s season on the court has been marred by various injuries.
Having missed two five-game spells sidelined with a quad strain and a groin injury, respectively, the Indiana Fever guard made her return to the court against the Golden State Valkyries in July.
Just four games back into her return, though, on Tuesday night in the Fever’s 85-77 win over the Connecticut Sun, a game which saw Clark get chippy with the refs, the reigning Rookie of the Year appeared to sustain yet another injury.
In a now deleted tweet, Clark’s brother Colin appeared to accuse the referees’ officiating as a reason for her injury.
“Make no mistake, this is on the reffing,” Colin said on X, via X user @CClarkReport.
Clark has been on the end of both some rough physical play and some contentious calls from the officials her whole career, including the ‘cheap shot’ in the eye that was taken at her by Jacy Sheldon of the Sun in the two teams’ last meeting.
After dropping 14 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, despite another poor shooting night in which she converted just 28.6 percent of her field goal attempts, the Fever guard was seen clutching her groin in the final minute of the contest.
At a sold-out crowd of 19,156 at the TD Garden – the home of the NBA’s Boston Celtics – Clark walked hastily down the court clutching her right groin before walking over to the basket stanchion, and banging her head against it whilst trying to be consoled by teammate Aliyah Boston.
During the timeout, she could be seen with a towel covered over her head, looking like she was holding back tears.
After the victory, Fever head coach Stephanie White addressed the media about Clark’s apparent injury.
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“No update. Just felt a little something in her groin,” White said. “We’ll get it evaluated and see what happens from there.”
“Certainly we’ll have another evaluation, probably a conversation, and we’ll see where we are.
“But this group has played without her. At least we’ve got experience in that.”
Having just been named a contestant in the WNBA All-Star’s three-point contest, despite averaging just 28.3 percent from beyond the arc in 2025 , her place in that competition is now in jeopardy, with All-Star weekend just mere days aware.
A two-time All-Star, Clark’s popularity has almost single-handedly seen the league reach exponential heights in terms of viewership, ticket sales, and online exposure.
This has led to the league announcing another three expansion teams to join the WNBA before 2030, with Cleveland, Detroit and the Portland Fire joining the Toronto Tempo.
Though some have also attributed this growth to that of Clark’s collegiate rival Angel Reese, the ‘Caitlin Clark Effect’ simply cannot be understated.
The Fever are now 12-10 on the season, and find themselves sitting in third place in the Eastern Conference, and sixth overall in the WNBA standings.