Fever's Caitlin Clark sitting out against Fire with back issue - ESPN

Fever star Caitlin Clark was a late scratch ahead of Wednesday night's matchup against the Portland Fire because of a back injury.

The 2024 No. 1 draft pick and Rookie of the Year, Clark is coming off an injury-riddled season in which she appeared in only 13 games and missed the entire second half of the season.

During Indiana's season-opening loss to the Dallas Wings, Clark went into the tunnel twice to get her back worked on and «adjusted» before reentering the game. She said afterward that her back «gets out of line pretty quickly» and that her trips off the floor were to «get my back put back in place a little bit.»

«That moment where my back tightened up, I think I almost got confidence from that because I came back in and I played eight more minutes, so I felt great,» Clark said last week. «It's something I can take confidence from. But it's going to take me a little bit to really get over the mental hurdle of trusting my body.»

Clark, a two-time All-Star and 2024 All-WNBA first-team selection, is averaging 24.3 points, 9.0 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game through the first four games of 2025. She has two straight 20-point, 10-assist performances, including 21 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds in only 24 minutes this past Sunday in a win over the Seattle Storm.