Caitlin Clark will miss at least two weeks of WNBA action with a left quad strain, the Indiana Fever has announced.
The news will come as a devastating blow to the WNBA, whose ratings are dependent on a fit and healthy Clark – far and away the biggest name in the league.
It is not yet clear how serious the injury is, with the Fever’s statement worryingly only revealing she would miss ‘a minimum of two weeks’.
Further updates, the team added, ‘will be provided, as available, following re-evaluation.’
It is also unknown how Clark sustained the injury, with her finishing Saturday’s 90-88 loss to the New York Liberty seemingly unhurt.
The Fever are four games into the new season and Clark has been at the heart of the action, already becoming embroiled in the next chapter of her rivalry with Angel Reese.
Caitlin Clark is set to miss at least two weeks of action after straining her left quad
That will be put on hold for now, though, with Clark likely to miss at least four games – including the next showdown with Reese in Chicago on June 7.
Indiana next play on Wednesday against the Mystics, before hosting the Sun and Mystics. They are then on the road at the Sky, before Caitlin’s potential return on June 10 against Atlanta Dream.
The quad strain is the first injury Clark has suffered in her fledgling WNBA career, which saw her crowned Rookie of the Year last season.
From an Indiana Fever on-court perspective, the news will come as a blow to the team given their 2-2 record even with their superstar player.
More widely, though, the news of Clark’s absence is a huge issue for the WNBA, whose ratings are through the roof purely because of the Fever star’s arrival in the league.
A recent study revealed that Clark was responsible for 26.5 percent of all the WNBA’s economic activity in 2024, per Sports Illustrated.
That includes revenue from merchandise, ticket sales, and television rights deals.
For the 2025 season, Ryan Brewer, a finance expert and an associate professor of finance at Indiana University-Columbus, believes that Clark could force that number to grow even further.
‘If things just go as they were, and we have an expanded season of 22 home games with modest inflation, I’m looking at $875 [million],’ Brewer told NBC News.
‘And I could easily see that eclipsing a billion dollars on the economic impact of Caitlin Clark this year.’
