​Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White said Caitlin Clark will return from her back injury Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Sparks, a development she announced to reporters just hours before tip-off at Crypto.com Arena. White indicated that Clark, a three-time All-Star guard, will be active for the game, while center Aliyah Boston, a four-time All-Star, will sit out with a right lower-leg injury. White noted that the lineup will flip for the following night, with Clark unlikely to play Thursday against the Phoenix Mercury—the back half of Indiana’s back-to-back—while Boston is expected to be in the lineup for that matchup, which will be the Fever’s final regular-season meeting with the Mercury this year.
Clark has sat out the Fever’s last two games, missing action since an early exit in the June 24 loss to the Mercury. In that game, Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas forced Clark to the ground by pushing on Clark’s throat after Clark lost her footing and the ball. Officials did not call a foul at the moment, and the play was not reviewed during Indiana’s home defeat, much to the dismay of the Fever. Thomas later received a flagrant-2 foul for the “reckless” contact and was suspended for one game. More than a week afterward, Clark told reporters she believed the play should have been ruled a flagrant foul and expressed concern that the league must do more to protect its players.
Two nights before the Thomas incident, in a June 22 win over the Mercury, Clark was involved in a scuffle with former Fever teammate DeWanna Bonner, which sparked six technical fouls and an ejection for Indiana forward Myisha Hines-Allen. Through this season, Clark has already accumulated five technical fouls and is just three away from an automatic one-game suspension.
As for her back injury, the Fever have approached Clark’s status with caution. She was first listed with a back injury in May after being a late scratch for a game against the Portland Fire, a decision that raised questions since she hadn’t been listed on the team’s injury report. The WNBA subsequently issued Indiana a warning about injury designations. Since then, Clark has been a regular on the injury report, often marked as “probable.”
The Fever have pursued a cautious path with Clark this season after a series of soft-tissue injuries limited her to only 13 games last year. In Indiana’s season opener, a tense loss to the Dallas Wings, Clark took several trips to the tunnel. She later explained that she needed to have her back adjusted, describing the issue as something that “gets out of line pretty quickly.”
Last week, Clark was named a starter for this year’s All-Star Game. She has appeared in 17 of Indiana’s 20 games. Over her previous eight appearances, Clark has shot 36.7 percent from three-point range, including three or more triples in five outings. As Indiana moves toward the stretch run of the season, her return will be watched closely, both for her impact on the floor and for how the Fever manage her minutes given the ongoing back concerns.