Caitlin Clark dealing with leg issue ahead of WNBA pre-season

WNBA phenom Caitlin Clark is dealing with an apparent leg issue, her team announced on Friday.

The Indiana Fever listed Clark as questionable with the leg issue for Saturday’s pre-season opener. 

No further details are available about the star’s ailment at this time.

Last season, Clark averaged 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 8.4 assists per game. She topped all rookies in scoring and led the WNBA in average assists, helping the Fever get back to the playoffs for the first time in eight years. 

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The Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark looks back during the game against the Atlanta Dream at Gateway Center Arena in Atlanta on Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

But even more than her team depends on Clark, the league and the sport as a whole have leaned on the star to elevate its popularity. 

Clark made the Fever the most-watched team in the WNBA by a landslide in her rookie year, as the 14 most-watched games of the season all involved the Fever. On top of that, she broke the record for most All-Star votes for any player in WNBA history.

INSIDE CAITLIN CLARK’S IMPACT ON MEN’S BASKETBALL

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark smiles as she looks to the team bench during the game against the Dallas Wings at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas, on Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

In early September 2024, Clark’s Indiana Fever played before a TV audience of 1.26 million viewers in a game against the Minnesota Lynx that occurred at the same time as a Week-1 Friday night NFL game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers. 

In Clark’s first regular-season finale against the Washington Mystics on Sept. 19, the 20,711 fans that showed up at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., set a record for the highest-attended WNBA regular-season contest.

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Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark dribbles during the game against the Dallas Wings at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

Clark and the Fever drew a WNBA record 1.84 million TV viewers on ABC to her first playoff game against the Connecticut Sun on Sept. 22, while competing with an NFL Sunday. She followed it up with another record audience of 2.54 million viewers for Game 2.

But after the Fever’s season ended, the WNBA playoffs saw a steep drop-off in viewers. 

The first semifinal game between the Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty, a rematch of last year’s WNBA finals between two of the league’s most popular and successful teams, drew an audience of just 929,000, which was 50% less than the Fever’s Game 1 against the Sun.

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