Time has run out for Caitlin Clark to return from her lingering groin injury, with the Indiana Fever guard announcing via social media this week that she will officially sit out the rest of the 2025 WNBA season in hopes of making a healthy start in 2026.

"I spent hours in the gym every day with the singular goal of getting back out there, disappointed isn't a big enough word to describe how I am feeling," Clark said in her Thursday post.

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"Caitlin has worked so hard throughout this time, doing everything possible to recover and return to the court but, ultimately, time is not on our side," Fever COO and GM Amber Cox said in a team statement. "Her long-term health and well-being remains our top priority."

Clark featured in just 13 games for the Indiana Fever this year, averaging 16.5 points, 8.8 assists, and five rebounds per game on the season while also earning a nod as a 2025 WNBA All-Star Game captain.

Following a season of shooting slumps and soft tissue knocks, the Indiana standout has watched the No. 8 Fever's championship hopes dwindle under the weight of additional roster shifts.

Veteran offseason signing DeWanna Bonner jumped ship midseason to join the No. 4 Phoenix Mercury, while guards Sydney Colson, Aari McDonald, and Sophie Cunningham all went down with season-ending injuries alongside forward Chloe Bibby.

"This has been incredibly frustrating, but even in the bad, there is good. The way the fans continued to show up for me, and for the Fever, brought me so much joy and important perspective," Clark wrote. "I am so proud of how this team has only gotten stronger through adversity this year."

"Now it's time to close out the season and claim our spot in the Playoffs," Clark added.

How to watch the Indiana Fever this weekend

Despite the setback, No. 8 Indiana still has a clear path to punching a postseason ticket, starting with a Friday matchup against the No. 11 Chicago Sky. The game will tip off at 7:30 PM ET, with live coverage on ION.

Then on Sunday, the Fever will take on the No. 10 Washington Mystics in their penultimate game of the 2025 season, airing live at 3 PM ET on NBA TV.

The No. 6 Indiana Fever are officially down another guard due to injury, with the team confirming Tuesday that Sophie Cunningham suffered a season-ending right MCL tear during the squad's Sunday matchup against the No. 13 Connecticut Sun.

"If you're going to hurt your knee, that is the best possible case," Cunningham explained on her podcast on Tuesday. "A couple more inches to the left, [I] would've torn a whole bunch more s—t. I'm very thankful for where I am at, so it's all good."

Cunningham posted an average of 8.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game while shooting 46.9% from the field on the season for Indiana.

In response to losing the seven-season WNBA standout, Indiana signed veteran guard Shey Peddy to a seven-day hardship contract on Tuesday, one day after releasing previous hardship addition Kyra Lambert.

Cunningham became the third Fever guard sidelined with a season-ending injury in less than two weeks, after Indiana lost both Sydney Colson and Aari McDonald to an ACL tear and broken foot, respectively, in the same game on August 7th.

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The trio join superstar guard Caitlin Clark on the Fever's injured list, after the WNBA sophomore's lingering right groin issue has seen her on the bench since before the 2025 All-Star break.

That said, Clark has reportedly been participating in practice this week, ramping up her game fitness as she eyes a return to the 2025 WNBA court.

The No. 6 Indiana Fever are laughing in the face of adversity, pulling off the biggest comeback win in team history on Sunday despite guard Sophie Cunningham exiting with a right knee injury following a second-quarter collision.

As Cunningham joined fellow guards Caitlin Clark (right groin), Aari McDonald (broken foot), and Sydney Colson (ACL tear) on the injured list, the Fever overcame a 21-point deficit to down the No. 13 Connecticut Sun 99-93 in overtime behind guard Kelsey Mitchell's 38-point performance.

"We came in at halftime, we talked about chipping away, being resilient," said Indiana forward Aliyah Boston, who notched 14 points and 13 rebounds for her 15th double-double of the year in Sunday's win, setting a new single-season Fever record. "That's kind of been our story this entire season."

Amid the myriad injuries causing the beleaguered Fever to lose steam in the WNBA standings, Cunningham's knock — which will reportedly undergo an MRI assessment on Monday — is just the latest blow in an expected banner year for the 25-year-old franchise.

Seeing increased playing time since Clark's mid-July injury, Cunningham is averaging 8.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game while shooting 46.9% from the field this season.

Looking to bolster their backcourt with Clark's return timeline still in question, Indiana signed veteran guard Odyssey Sims and rookie Kyra Lambert to hardship contracts last week.

"This group is tight.... They stay together," Fever coach Stephanie White told reporters following Sunday's game. "I think, for us, reiterating we've got to be where our feet are. We can't look too far behind us. We can't look too far in front of us. We've got to make sure that we're focused on one day at a time."

How to watch the Indiana Fever in this week's WNBA slate

Indiana will be thankful for a few days off this week, taking time to recover before hosting the seemingly unstoppable No. 1 Minnesota Lynx on Friday.

The Fever's clash with the league leaders will tip off at 7:30 PM ET, with live coverage airing on ION.

The injury woes continued for the No. 5 Indiana Fever last week, with guards Sydney Colson and Aari McDonald both going down with season-ending injuries in Thursday's 95-60 blowout loss to the No. 4 Phoenix Mercury.

While 36-year-old veteran Colson tore her left ACL in the first quarter of the matchup, midseason signee McDonald broke her foot in the fourth quarter — leaving Indiana with just nine available players for Saturday's 92-70 win over the No. 11 Chicago Sky.

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With star Caitlin Clark still recovering from a groin injury, Thursday saw the Fever's point guard stock dwindle even further — especially as the team initially signed McDonald to a rest-of-season contract in late June to specifically address Clark's absence and help lighten the load.

"This is the most resilient team I've ever been a part of, and I say that wholeheartedly," Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell told reporters following her game-leading 26-point performance on Saturday. "We've had a lot of mishap happen throughout the course of the season...and we've stayed resilient."

With Colson and McDonald out for 2025 and Clark's recovery timeline still uncertain, Indiana's ongoing struggle to patch together a full, healthy roster saw the Fever sign veteran guard Odyssey Sims to a hardship contract on Sunday.

How to watch the Indiana Fever this week

The No. 5 Fever will put their newest lineup to the test on Tuesday, when Indiana will host the No. 12 Dallas Wings at 7:30 PM ET on ESPN.

With injuries mounting across the WNBA, several teams have started stocking up on recently waived free agents, bolstering their depleted rosters with hardship signings as they head into a busy stretch of the 2025 regular season.

With both guard Kahleah Copper and forward Alyssa Thomas sidelined, the Phoenix Mercury signed former Atlanta Dream guard and 2023 first-round draft pick Haley Jones to a rest-of-season hardship contract on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Fever picked up ex-LA Sparks guard and 2021 first-rounder Aari McDonald on Sunday, with Indiana looking to boost their backcourt depth in light of injuries to guards Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, and Sydney Colson.

These hardship signings come in clutch to keep benches stocked and WNBA teams in action.

However, the longevity of these early-season additions remains uncertain as teams attempt to balance league-maximum 12-player lineups with restrictive salary caps.

Hardship contracts allow teams to temporarily expand the salary cap, but when injured players return, so do tough roster calls — much to the dismay of front office decision-makers.

"More bodies would be good," Fever president Kelly Krauskopf told reporters with a wry laugh ahead of McDonald's signing.

Roster limitations will likely be a key issue when CBA negotiations rev up, with this week's emergency signings only adding fuel to the fire.

WNBA roster shakeups kept rolling this week, with a deluge of moves radically reshaping the 2022 and 2023 league champion Las Vegas Aces.

After three seasons in Las Vegas, backup guard and popular locker room presence Sydney Colson signed a one-year deal with Indiana on Thursday. The Fever, who've been aggressive about inking athletes they believe will bring a title back to Indianapolis, targeted Colson for her veteran experience.

"[Colson] brings a championship pedigree to the Fever, adding depth to our point guard position, said Fever COO and GM Amber Cox in the team's announcement. "We have the utmost confidence in her ability to step into any situation and deliver on both ends of the floor."

Joining Colson in leaving Las Vegas is forward Alysha Clark. A key factor in the Aces' 2023 title run — which ultimately earned her the WNBA's Sixth Woman of the Year award — Clark is returning to the Seattle Storm, where she played from 2012 to 2020.

The Aces are also losing their 2024 Sixth Woman of the Year, Tiffany Hayes. Despite the Aces protecting her in December's expansion draft, the free agent guard will take her talents to incoming franchise Golden State. There, she'll link up with former Las Vegas assistant coach-turned-Valkyries boss Natalie Nakase.

"Having coached Tiffany last season in Las Vegas, I know firsthand the impact she brings both on and off the court," Nakase noted. "Her versatility, intensity, and ability to score will be invaluable as we build our team's identity."

Atlanta's Cheyenne Parker-Tyus guards Las Vegas's A'ja Wilson during a 2024 WNBA game.
Cheyenne Parker-Tyus will join A'ja Wilson in the Aces' front court this season. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Las Vegas Aces take aim at refreshed dynasty

After falling short of a three-peat championship last season — despite three-time WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson's outstanding 2024 performance — a significant Aces roster reshuffling was all but guaranteed ahead of the 2025 season.

Las Vegas kicked things off by shipping All-Star guard Kelsey Plum off to the LA Sparks last month. The blockbuster three-team trade sent Seattle's two-time champ Jewell Loyd to the Aces in return.

To shore up their front-court, Las Vegas inked 6-foot-4 power forward Cheyenne Parker-Tyus on Thursday. The 2023 All-Star averaged 15 points and 6.7 rebounds for Atlanta that season, and was on her way to matching that production last year when an ankle injury curbed her 2024 run.

Ultimately, Las Vegas's roller coaster offseason reflects both the WNBA's shifting landscape and the Aces' quest to revive their former dynasty, hoping a fresh start can fuel them all the way to another league title in 2025.

The Las Vegas Aces want to take their talents to a different type of game –”Family Feud.”

On Sunday, Kiah Stokes posted on X (formerly Twitter) about the game show, asking if there was any way the two-time reigning WNBA champions could be featured as contestants. She even wanted to take the pitch directly to host Steve Harvey.

“Can we go on ‘Family Feud’??” she wrote, speaking about the Aces. “Who got Steve’s number?”

The Aces have had quite the championship tour, which already has included attending Usher’s residency in Las Vegas. And everyone – including the Aces’ social media admin – appeared to be on board with a potential “Family Feud” appearance.

“Let’s goooooo!! I’m down someone let Steve know!!” A’ja Wilson wrote.

“Count me in!!!!” Alysha Clark added.

“Oh yeah I guess I shoulda asked if y’all would be down,” Stokes responded.

Meanwhile, the Aces kept tweeting out Steve Harvey reactions with various captions, including calling out Sydney Colson – whose answers would undoubtedly warrant a classic Harvey reaction.

“We would be doin’ the most,” Colson wrote Monday.

Social media drama swirled around the LSU basketball team Thursday, with former Tigers and current WNBA players stirring the pot.

The kerfuffle started with posts by the mothers of Angel Reese and Flau’jae Johnson, each seemingly directed at the other. Reese’s mother Angel Webb Reese complained about text messages with grammatical errors on Instagram Stories, and then Johnson’s mother Kia Brooks called out mother and daughter in her own post.

“You definitely know about grammar errors when your daughter got a 2.0 or less GPA. … Stop being petty, fake and hateful, and take responsibility for you and your daughter’s actions,” Brooks wrote.

While neither Reese nor Johnson addressed the posts on their own social media platforms, former teammates Alexis Morris and Jasmine Carson jumped into the fray.

All four players won the national championship with LSU in April. Morris and Carson now are playing overseas, while Reese and Johnson are still with the Tigers, whose title defense got off to a rocky start.

“Switched up to gang up on me, now y’all fallin’ out,” wrote Morris, who got herself into hot water on social media earlier this year after calling out WNBA veterans.

In another post, she wrote: “Can we just all get (along)? Heck no that’s over with.”

Morris also stood up for LSU head coach Kim Mulkey, writing: “You can’t pay me to bash Kim!”

“Y’all better hope I don’t say nothing,” Carson wrote.

WNBA players also got in on the action, with Las Vegas Aces guard Sydney Colson writing: “I wanna see LSU play LSU cuz what’s goin onnn??”

Washington Mystics center Shakira Austin tried to offer advice, writing: “Listen I’m ALL for speaking your truth, if everybody told their story we all know 75% of coaches would not have a job. But don’t let no quick attention cause any harm to your brand. The best thing is to focus on what’s next bc these folks still gonna get contract extensions…”

NCAA basketball champion Flau’jae Johnson and WNBA champions Sydney Colson and Theresa Plaisance all share a passion for their sport and a flair for entertainment.

But they definitely don’t share musical talent, as seen on the latest episode of Colson and Plaisance’s unscripted comedy series “The Syd + TP Show.”

In one segment of the show, the Las Vegas Aces players crash Johnson’s studio time, much to the LSU guard’s chagrin. Colson’s attempt at rapping includes a Chuck E. Cheese reference.

“Look Flau, you want these bars or not?” Colson asks Johnson. “Because we’re trying to be the realest and the illest in the league, you know? They say you’re the best, so show us the best.”

Luckily for Colson and Plaisance, Johnson provides a demonstration of her own skills at the microphone. The LSU sophomore balances her burgeoning basketball and music careers, with the Tigers preparing to start their title defense months after Johnson dropped a 13-song mixtape with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation under its Equity Distribution platform.

“I love making records. Like, I can spit and enjoy freestyling, but I love making songs because I can show my versatility,” Flau’jae told Revolt in August. “I cannot wait for the fans to start hearing my new music.”

While Colson and Plaisance might not have rap careers in their futures, they’re showing off their own talents through their comedy show, which is produced by TOGETHXR, Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort and Fubo.

“I feel like our sense of humor and our personalities are what could attract people to basketball, if they don’t already watch it,” Colson told Forbes.

Sydney Colson isn’t usually a trash-talker, she says. But she is leaning into the persona after the Las Vegas Aces’ 2023 WNBA title win over the New York Liberty.

The 34-year-old guard continued post-WNBA Finals run Thursday with an appearance on “The Daily Show,” in which she discussed her viral mimicking of Sabrina Ionescu’s “night night” celebration but also the impact of the championship series as a whole.

“It’s incredible. I think about when I came in the league in 2011 and what it looked like then versus what these arenas will look like today and how many times we’ll see players on commercials, on TV shows, on just a variety of things,” she said. “It wasn’t anything I ever expected to see in my time that I was playing.

“But especially as a young Black player, to see women that look like me doing it and killing it, I was like, I just got to keep working.”

And while she had some choice words for the doubters after of the Aces’ series-clinching win, what host Desus Nice described as her “villain era” wasn’t planned. But she’s embracing it.

“I didn’t even know I would be in it,” she said. “I’m trolling people at this point online because I don’t care. They’re like, ‘You only had 2 points. She’s got 2 points, how is she on ‘The Daily Show’?”

As for the newfound rivalry between the Aces and the Liberty? For Colson, it’s based out of respect for one another.

“It’s like when you got a sibling or you got cousins you grew up with,” she said. “You rag on each other. You joke on each other, but you love them.”