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Caitlin Clark suffers ankle injury in Dream win, avoids serious injury

ATLANTA — It didn’t look good at first, but Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark’s sprained ankle didn’t have much of an impact on the Fever’s 84-79 win Monday night.

She didn’t really like how she reacted when she looked back at the injury. Clark fell to the ground after getting tangled up with Atlanta’s Nia Coffey at the free-throw line around the 3-minute mark of the first quarter. She writhed on the ground for a few minutes, and her teammates surrounded her as the trainers came out.

More: Kelsey Mitchell keeps balling as Fever avoid nightmare collapse against Dream

“I watched the replay and I look really weak,” Clark said, drawing laughs from teammate Kelsey Mitchell and coach Christie Sides. “It wasn’t that bad of a turn, but it hurt. Sometimes you just have to give yourself a little time. If you’ve ever twisted your ankle, it just hurts for a little while, so I was good.”

Clark walked to the bench under her own power after her injury and appeared to have her ankle taped as guard Erica Wheeler replaced her. Clark returned to the game to start the second quarter, no limp in sight.

“(The coaches) said, ‘Do you want to go back?’ and I said, ‘No, stick it here, let’s go,'” Clark said. “We’ve got to keep going, keep playing. I’ve done it a couple times, it is what it is. You’re not a real basketball player if you haven’t sprained your ankle a couple times.”

She ended up playing the rest of the game, which lasted 37 minutes, scoring 19 points on 6 of 14 shooting (4 of 9 from 3), adding seven rebounds and seven assists.