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Caitlin Clark made a shaky return to WNBA action on Saturday following her season-ending injury last year.
Clark, in his first preseason game for the Indiana Fever, made just two of his 10 field goal attempts in Saturday’s preseason game against the New York Liberty. However, he did hit a three-pointer, made two free throws and grabbed three rebounds and four assists. He played only 17 minutes.
Clark suffered a season-ending right groin injury last July, aggravated by a bone bruise on his left ankle suffered during training in August.
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Indiana Fever’s Caitlyn Clark watches as the game is about to begin against the New York Liberty at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, on April 25, 2026. (Michelle Farsi/Getty Images)
“It’s not like I hurt my knee or tore my Achilles tendon or anything, knock on wood,” Clark said, according to reporter Tony East in March. “They were these kinds of persistent injuries that kept piling up and piling up, and they were treated on top of each other.
“I think it…played with my mind even more than knowing I was going to be out for a certain period of time. I was always trying to come back and always trying to come back, and then I would get hurt in another way.”
Prior to Saturday, Clark also competed for USA Basketball in the FIBA Women’s World Cup Qualifying Tournament in March.
The Fever and the WNBA as a whole depend on Clark in 2026, for a big year. The Fever have championship aspirations after falling just one game short of the WNBA Finals last year with Clark injured. Meanwhile, the WNBA will lean on Clark to keep the league growing in terms of relevance and popularity after it agreed to pay its players much higher salaries with a new collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union in March.
As the league’s most popular player, the WNBA has a lot to gain from Clark staying healthy and playing well.
FEVER’S LOSS TO SPARKS TRIGGERS MORE REACTION AGAINST ESPN ANALYST FOR CONTROVERSIAL TAKE OF CAITLIN CLARK
Team USA’s Caitlin Clark reacts during the 2026 Women’s World Cup qualifier against Puerto Rico at the José Miguel Agrelot Puerto Rico Coliseum in San Juan on March 12, 2026. (Alexa Alejandro/FIBA)
Clark appeared in 20 of the 23 WNBA games that drew more than 1 million viewers in 2024. But in 2025, the WNBA’s national television audience saw a significant 55% decline during a two-week period in which Caitlin Clark was sidelined with a quad injury, according to Nielsen Ratings.
Clark’s Fever teammate Lexie Hull previously told Pak Gazette Digital that she noticed a difference in how opposing players began to perform against her team that year, which she attributes to the rise in popularity.
“Because of the fans we’ve had since 2024, with the rise in popularity, I think Indiana Fever is like a name that people know… And there’s a million Fever t-shirts and t-shirts. I think as an opposing team, you’d want to win even more because you feel like there’s so many people rooting for you,” Hull said.
“It’s exciting to have that kind of fan base across the country, and I think other teams have great fans and great people who perform for them, and they want to perform for those people, just like we want to perform for ours.”
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Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark sits on the bench after being taken out with a possible injury during the second half against the Connecticut Sun at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts on July 15, 2025. (Brian Fluharty/Getty Images)
Asked if he thinks games have become more physical as a result, Hull said: “I think just the game itself is physical. I don’t know if it’s become more physical. I think social media amplifies that a lot.
“I think people want to win. I think people just want to win… [The games] They are all physical. …Everyone gets irritable sometimes. Calls are made, calls are not made. “That’s just part of the game.”
