Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has missed a total of three games in the last three weeks due to her back injury. After sustaining the health setback during a June 24 game against the Phoenix Mercury, she missed two straight games against the Los Angeles Sparks and Las Vegas Aces.
Clark returned to action on July 8 against the Sparks, two weeks after her injury due to the Fever's light schedule. As a result of her lack of competitive play for an extended period, Indiana put her on a minutes restriction. She played short bursts of two to three minutes at a time, logging a total of 16 minutes against L.A.
The All-Star guard sat out the second game of a back-to-back against the Phoenix Mercury on July 9, but played once again on Sunday against the Las Vegas Aces, albeit on a minutes restriction.
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Now, before Clark took the floor against the Golden State Valkyries on Wednesday, she addressed her health status as she continues to have constraints on her playing time.
"I feel good," Clark confirmed, per Brian Haenchen of the Indianapolis Star. "For me it's just like putting days together, games together consistently and then keep building."
It is unknown how long Clark will be under a minutes restriction. Fever head coach Stephanie White said following Clark's return against the Sparks that it's always "going to take some time to get acclimated" when a player has missed a couple of weeks.
The Fever certainly have benchmarks that they want Clark to hit, especially from an endurance standpoint, before giving back her usual playing time.
Indiana will have back-to-back games against the Seattle Storm and New York Liberty on Friday and Saturday. Clark said that there's still no conversation about whether she will play in both games, but she hopes to be good to go.
