The second season of Caitlin Clark was spoiled by an injury, with his All-Star WNBA at home. Could physicality be a factor?

New York – While Indiana Fever and New York Liberty warmed up in the last 10 minutes before the tip on Wednesday evening, fans formed a semicircle in the crowd near the tunnel. Caitlin Clark stood among them to sign some objects before joining his teammates on the ground in a complete black tracksuit.

Clark was released with a right groin injury after refining it late in the victory of the previous night on Connecticut Sun in Boston. His status for all-star events this weekend, including his first 3-point competition and the head of the Clark team, is in doubt. Head coach Stephanie White said Clark had an MRI and that there was no discussion beyond this evening “in New York.

“Caitlin and his team will make decisions regarding the stars,” said head coach Stephanie White before the defeat of 98-77. “And for me, it’s a big problem for us to have stars in Indianapolis and of course, with Caitlin being a focal point of all this. As an Indiana fever coach, it is not a more important affair than our long-term season, but (All-Star) is also part of the pleasure. But we are going to support its problem.”

The team scored Clark as questionable during their first availability report of the day and excluded it before arriving at Barclays Center. White said the decision came after seeing the imagery.

“Everything we are talking about” daily “is always good news for me,” said White. “But that’s the point of view of a layman.”

Caitlin Clark was emotional at the end of Tuesday evening’s match after having reduced his groin in the last minute. (AP photo / Michael Dwyer)

(Associated Press)

Clark’s potential absence puts a brake on what was ready to be an explosive star in her hometown of the WNBA, where it serves as a de facto chair. Indianapolis submitted and received approval for welcoming stars less than a year ago, deeply in the record season of Clark, while the fever broke the attendance and the goods of goods.

Players, including Clark, will start the weekend with it. The 3 points and skills competitions are Friday evening, and the star match is on Saturday.

The League announced its candidates at 3 points on Tuesday, a few hours before the match in Boston. Clark did not participate in the competition a year ago. Sabrina Ionescu, the WNBA record holder, is expected to compete alongside Kelsey Plum, Allisha Gray and recruit Sonia Lemon. Clark drafted his team in front of Napheesa Necklace a week ago, building a group that presented the fever teammates Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell. It also has various appearances in terms of events as a player with the largest draw that the league has ever seen.

White and Fever’s teammates said their first concern, in less than 24 hours since the injury, has maintained Clark’s spirits. Clark injured the groin in the last minute of the Tuesday match and was visibly frustrated in a row, slamming his head in the stanchion and becoming emotional on the bench.

“Whenever you are injured like that, it’s frustrating,” said Sophie Cunningham, who faced an ankle injury earlier this season. “It’s not just physically. It is a mental assessment. Be in detoxification cure; (When) you are injured, you are in the gymnasium more and it is much more difficult than when you are in good health. We just try to keep it positive. ”

This is the fourth injury that Clark has suffered this season (said White, to his understanding, it is not a “re-blue as much as a different injury” in the connected area of the body). Clark lowered the team’s first pre-season match with a quadruple and played the next day when Indiana welcomed the Brazilian national team from its Alma Mater, Iowa University. After fever has dropped 2-2 this season in a tight defeat against New York, Clark hit the bench for five games with a quadruple left strain. Her return lasted five games before she missed the time at the end of June with a left groin injury. The match against Connecticut was its fourth return to programming.

“Being injured and continuing to have setbacks is mentally (and) emotionally frustrating,” said White. “Often being injured is insulating.”

Before this season, the last injury that Clark suffered was in high school. She did not miss a single match at Iowa, nor in her recruit season. On Wednesday, she missed her 10th fever game. At this stage of the season, injuries accumulate everywhere and for many best players in the game. New York remains without center Jonquel Jones, who targeted the home match of July 22 against fever like his first return since June 19.

“Having a longer season, having fewer games and (not) on top of each other. I think it’s the only solution,” said Sandy Brondello, Liberty head coach who will lead the Clark team this weekend, said pre-match. “Because these players are conditioned, but sometimes it’s part of the game. And yes, so I hope, maybe in the future, we will have a longer season (and) fewer games in a week.”

The number of games has increased again this year while the footprint remained the same. The playoffs will also be more a version with a series of best seven waiting for the WNBA final. Brondello said muscle injuries could be a charge, but many injuries are “only bad luck.”

In the case of Clark, the defensive intensity that she sees every night could be an important factor. The league is known for its physicity, although it is bordered at the dawn of the poor official officials of players and coaches this season. White called him earlier in the year after dust with the sun led to ejections. After the victory of Sunday fever on the wings, Calling commentators video The four unnecessary faults on Clark in a first game made rounds this week. The same ESPN broadcast reported that the recruit Paige Bueckers had told them that she should learn to defend while dirty – different from her coach in Uconn – because the players get out of it.

When asked specifically if physicity is billed at Clark’s injuries, White accepted.

“It makes you load differently,” said White. “Makes you explode differently. It makes you speed up and decelerates differently. It is not the fluid movement that we want to see with regard to freedom of movement. And I think that all these things sometimes, when it may not be a blow or another over time, when we have conversations at the level of the league.”

And now it is not clear if the Clark movements this weekend will involve launching 3 pointers () on the ground, or to sit on the sidelines, to look as a fan.