Caitlin Clark Reveals How She's Navigating 'Really Frustrating Days' amid Injury Rehab

It's been a tough season for Indiana Fever star guard Caitlin Clark, who has missed 18 of her team's 31 games due to injury this season.

Clark sat down with former WNBA superstar Sue Bird on the Bird's Eye View podcast to talk about frustrations during her injury rehab alongside a host of other topics (full conversation starts at 1:15:50 mark).

"There’s just so much to manage. And then obviously I feel like that’s been a huge part of this year. It’s just been so challenging being active and playing four games, and then not, and not feeling the best and then frustrated of like how hard I’ve worked in the offseason, and then all I do is rehab and continue to do this process, and just trying to trust that the best I can.

"Obviously, there's really frustrating days and there's days where it’s a little bit easier and you’re very, very motivated and you’re close to the finish line of getting back and being back.

"It’s not like I have a training camp to build up to play in my first game again. It’s like no, you’re tossed into game 30—like, ‘Go try to play well.’ Like it’s hard, it really is."

Clark has missed three different stretches this year due to a left quad strain, a left groin strain and a right groin strain. She suffered the right groin strain in an 85-77 win over the Connecticut Sun on July 15 and has been out since,

For the season, Clark has averaged 16.5 points, 8.8 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 1.6 steals. She made her second straight All-Star Game in as many seasons.

Clark has now missed nine straight games. Head coach Stephanie White said on ESPN's NBA Today on Monday that there isn't a timetable for her return (h/t CBS Sports' Jack Maloney).

"It's day-to-day right now, we're putting no timetable on it," White said. "[She is] going through the rehab process, and then we want to reintegrate her from a strength and conditioning standpoint and then get her back to basketball activities. So we're taking it one day at a time, really slow rolling it, slow playing it this time... The most important thing for us is Caitlin's long-term health and getting her back to 100% before we put her back on the floor."

It's obviously understandable for Clark to be frustrated, especially considering that she's returned to the court two times at this point only to be sidelined again. Now it's unclear when she'll return as the Fever enter the home stretch of the season.

Hopefully Clark is back to 100 percent health ASAP. In the meantime, the 17-14 Fever are in a race to make the playoffs. Indiana is in good shape now in fifth (the top eight make playoffs), although the ninth-place Sparks, at 14-15, are just one game back in the loss column. Indiana will host the Chicago Sky next on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.