The biggest ratings driver in all of TV sports, Caitlin Clark, is headed to the injury list for at least two weeks.
Clark will miss at least the next two weeks with a left quadriceps strain, the Fever announced Monday, marking the first time in her collegiate or professional career that she will miss a non-exhibition game. She was held out of a preseason game earlier this year due to a separate injury to the same left quad.
The two week period that Clark will miss includes the Fever’s next game against Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky, a primetime CBS game a week from Saturday. The three other games during the two week stretch are relatively low-profile, with Indiana facing the Mystics and Sun.
Should her injury extend beyond the two-week period, Indiana faces New York on ABC June 14 and the Aces on ESPN June 22.
Given Clark’s impact on the television ratings, her lack of injury history has been a minor miracle. Her durability was unlikely to last, as injuries to star players have become increasingly common in basketball.
USC star JuJu Watkins — the post-Clark face of women’s college basketball — tore her ACL during the NCAA Tournament. During the NBA Playoffs, Warriors G Stephen Curry missed nearly all of Golden State’s five-game series loss to Minnesota due to a hamstring strain, and more seriously, Celtics G Jayson Tatum and Bucks G Damian Lillard both suffered Achilles tears that will likely cost them next season.
As the WNBA schedule expands — this year’s 44-game slate is a record, and ten more than the league played in the 2019 season — nagging injuries and even the specter of load management could become greater issues.
While the rising tide of Clark has lifted the entire WNBA, there is simply no comparison in the ratings between Clark and non-Clark games.
