Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark will miss Wednesday’s home game against the Portland Fire due to a back injury, the team announced just two hours before the game. Clark was not listed on the injury report the day before.

Head coach Stephanie White said that Clark did not practice on Tuesday, but instead got treatments, went through workouts after practice and woke up with some “stiffness and soreness” on Wednesday morning.

“It’s not the time to take a chance,” White said. “We just really want to be cautious, you know.” When asked whether this would be an ongoing issue, White said she didn’t anticipate that it would, but added that she is “not a doctor.” 

“She’s healthy. We’re not managing anything,” White added later. “This is just a back issue that we want to make sure we give the time to be ready.”

During the first game of the season, Clark went back to the locker room multiple times to have her back worked on.

“Just getting my back adjusted. It gets out of line pretty quickly,” Clark told reporters after the game. So just getting my back put back in place a little bit. But other than that, feel great.”

“She has adjusted her body. When we’re all really young, we don’t learn proper mechanics and then it doesn’t get exposed until something happens,” White said at the time. “This is going to be an ongoing thing. Not just her. We’ve had multiple players who’ve gone back … and get adjusted and make sure that the body’s working. Hip alignment gets off. Rib alignment gets off and it’s part of being a professional athlete. Nothing outside of that. We wouldn’t have played her 30 minutes if she wasn’t okay.”

While this is the first game Clark will miss this season, last year she was only on the court for 13 games due to a variety of injuries. 

Through the first four games of 2026, Clark has been averaging a team-high 24.3 points and 9 assists. While Clark will be on the bench on Wednesday night, her co-star Aliyah Boston is making her return after missing one game due to a leg injury. Veteran guard Tyasha Harris will start in place of Clark.

Indiana and Portland enter Wednesday’s matchup with a 2-2 overall record. The game is set for 7 p.m. ET and will be available on  the USA Network.