Caitlin Clark is healthy again, but that doesn’t mean she’s fully back. After a 2025 season derailed by injuries, Clark has done everything right physically heading into the new campaign. The rehab, the conditioning, the preparation, it’s all been checked off. 

However, the Indiana Fever star guard admits that the biggest hurdle in her return isn’t physical, but mental. “So I think there’s definitely still days where I experience a little bit of a mental block,” she said, speaking to reporters on the first day of the team’s 2026 training camp. However, as she also explained, she’s doing every single thing she can to be healthy.

And of course, team head coach Stephanie White is fully behind the mission to manage Clark’s health more closely this season. In fact, speaking in a recent conversation on Query & Company, White explicitly mentioned that the team has to be smart in managing Clark this season. Her exact words were: “We also want to be smart. She doesn’t need every rep in practice. It’s a long season, 44 games, and we play a heavy cadence of games in a week. …we want to make sure that we manage the reps, and what kinds of reps she’s getting.”

Clark’s 2025 season was a frustrating cycle of setbacks. It began with a quad injury in training camp and quickly escalated. Just as she returned, a separate quad strain sidelined her for five games, followed by a groin ailment that cost her four more. The final blow came in July with a season-ending groin injury, a difficult period compounded by a bone bruise in her ankle during recovery

Of course, she’s now fully recovered. However, as she explained, “as a lot of athletes who have gone through injury know, it’s like a mental battle. It’s like your body’s fine. But you still put in the work and just kind of get over that mental hurt.”

The Fever will begin their preseason with a game against the New York Liberty on Saturday, April 25. And the expectation is that Clark will feature in that game. In fact, before this 2026 training camp, she already featured for Team USA, making her debut at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup Qualifying Tournament in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was even named the Tournament MVP after leading Team USA to a perfect 5-0 record.

As Stephanie White also said, that’s already an advantage for the Fever, because “she already has game exposure, pace, rhythm, timing.” But regardless, they will still exercise care to help ensure longevity throughout the season, and also throughout Clark’s career.

What Sitting Out Last Season Taught Caitlin Clark

Having to sit out injured last season was definitely difficult for Caitlin Clark. As she also said, “I wasn’t playing. So, you know, it’s hard. It’s very isolating to come to practice every single day and spend 2 hours getting treatment and rehab. And then, you know, you come out here, and you have to show up and be the best teammate you can be.” However, not being able to impact the team directly on the court taught her a lot about what she can also do for the team when she’s not playing.

“I’ve got to be their biggest fan,” Clark said. For her, she’s always been the one with the ball in her hands, which doesn’t always place her on the fan side of things. However, being out injured, she experienced what that feels like. As she said, “I had the ball in my hands. And you know, when you’re not doing that, you have to find another way to impact the team. So you know, I think I was able to do that and kind of help us and be as involved as I can.” In fact, as she also mentioned, she made sure to be at every single game, save one. That one she missed was a result of the rehabilitation appointments she had.

And of course, she actually enjoyed the experience of supporting from the sidelines. As she said, “I think that was a great experience for me because, throughout a lot of my career, everybody else was my biggest fan.”

Now back and fully healthy again, the Indiana Fever will have Clark on the court once more. They have their first regular season game at home against the Dallas Wings on Saturday, May 9.  Clark will, for sure, impact the team on the court this time, hopefully for most of the season.