MIAMI — Caitlin Clark doesn’t typically feel butterflies when she takes the court moments before tipoff.
But when she suits up for the U.S. women’s national team Wednesday for her first game in nearly eight months, the Fever star expects to experience a mixture of “a little bit nervous” and excitement.
“It’ll probably take me a second to knock a little bit of the rust off,” Clark said Saturday before next week’s FIBA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers in Puerto Rico.
The past eight months haven’t been easy for Clark.
She took the previous winter off from playing basketball before ramping up for the 2025 WNBA campaign.
Injuries, though, derailed a promising sophomore season with Indiana.
She dealt with various groin injuries and a bone bruise on her left ankle.
“I’ve always been a person that’s gonna just rely on my work. I feel like it’s certainly made me work harder. But that’s also probably the part that kind of stunk about it is I felt like I put in so much time and so much energy going into last season, and then obviously only appeared in about 13 games and [for] some of those [I] probably wasn’t as healthy as I probably should have been,” Clark said. “It was kind of these nagging injuries that continued to build up and build up and dealt with one on top of the other.”
Clark suggested the constant ups and downs on the road to recovery were a mental strain.
“I think that probably almost played with my mind even more than knowing I was going to be out for a set period of time,” she said. “I was always trying to come back, and then I get hurt in another way.”
The last meaningful game Clark played was July 15.
She was sidelined for WNBA All-Star weekend in Indianapolis before being officially shut down for the season in August.
A rehabilitation process can be isolating for an athlete.
The majority of Clark’s rehabbing journey during the season took place behind closed doors, often separate from her teammates.
She watched the Fever’s surprising run to the semifinals from the bench, wishing she could play and help her team in other ways beyond vocal encouragement.
Throughout the offseason, Clark has continued to work on improvements.
She’s played pickup games with former college players and current professionals in Indianapolis.
The Fever’s practice squad comes in and trains with Clark whether she’s doing a skill workout or scrimmaging.
At a USA Basketball camp in December, Clark said she was 100 percent healthy but admitted she wasn’t sure how long it would take for her to start feeling like herself again.
“The first USA Basketball camp was a great checkpoint for me, and I felt really great,” Clark said. “Honestly, I was impressed with how it I felt. Sometimes, I felt like it maybe would take me a day or two to really get my first step back, but I feel like myself out there, so just relying on that and just reminding myself who I am and what I’ve been. And I didn’t lose that, so just continue to do that.”
The recovery process has been leading up to Wednesday, when Clark will make her U.S. senior women’s team debut alongside Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese and others.
She’s eager to get back to playing and moving forward in her career.
“After the first minute of running around on the court, I’ll be just fine. But more than anything, just really excited,” Clark said. “I know how much work and how much time I put in to make sure my body’s as healthy as it can be and to get back not only to a point where I feel like I’m myself but [where] I feel like I’m even better than where I was at the beginning of last season. And I started off the season really well before I was hurt and tried to play through being hurt more than anything.”
