Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark was a late scratch ahead of Wednesday night's 90-73 win over the Portland Fire in Indianapolis because of back soreness.
Fever coach Stephanie White said before the game that Clark woke up with stiffness and soreness in her back. When asked postgame whether the issue can be characterized as an injury, White said, "Her back is sore. If there's anything more detailed than that, that's [for] the training staff [to address]."
White indicated she doesn't expect it to be an ongoing issue for Clark, though she acknowledged, "I'm not a doctor, so I don't know."
"It's not the time to take a chance," White said. "We just really want to be cautious."
Clark did not participate in practice Tuesday, instead getting treatment and going through workouts after practice. White said Clark was "absolutely not" sitting out because of load management.
"She's healthy," White said. "We're not managing anything. This is just a back issue that we want to make sure we give the time to be ready."
White said she does not expect the Fever to get fined for not initially listing Clark on the team's injury report Tuesday evening or updating it earlier Wednesday. There was no public indication Clark might not play until the team's announcement 100 minutes before tip.
"Not everybody that doesn't practice or gets a pro day is on the injury report," White said after the game. "That happens all the time. And she wasn't listed on the injury report earlier because we expected her to play."
The 2024 No. 1 draft pick and Rookie of the Year, Clark is coming off an injury-riddled season in which she appeared in only 13 games and missed the entire second half of the season.
During Indiana's season-opening loss to the Dallas Wings, Clark went into the tunnel twice to get her back worked on and "adjusted" before reentering the game. She said afterward that her back "gets out of line pretty quickly" and that her trips off the floor were to "get my back put back in place a little bit."
"That moment where my back tightened up, I think I almost got confidence from that because I came back in and I played eight more minutes, so I felt great," Clark said last week. "It's something I can take confidence from. But it's going to take me a little bit to really get over the mental hurdle of trusting my body."
Asked Wednesday whether the Fever need to do anything additional moving forward to manage Clark's back, White said, "Not that I'm aware of. I mean, I think the biggest thing is just how she feels."
Clark, a two-time All-Star and 2024 All-WNBA first-team selection, is averaging 24.3 points, nine assists and five rebounds per game through the first four games of 2026. She has two straight 20-point, 10-assist performances, including 21 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds in only 24 minutes Sunday in a win over the Seattle Storm.