Fever Coach Stephanie White Addresses Sophie Cunningham Problem

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Paolo Songco | Last updated Jun 13, 2025 11:37 AM ET

After winning back-to-back games last week, the Fever came crashing back down to earth on Tuesday. They were completely outplayed by the Atlanta Dream, who ended up securing a dominant 77-58 win over a shorthanded Indiana side.

The Dream exposed a significant issue for the Fever, which is their lack of personnel. In particular, the absence of Caitlin Clark, who has been nursing a quad injury over the past couple of weeks, was a big problem for an Indiana squad that did not have its best player available.

To a certain extent, missing the services of veteran Sophie Cunningham also proved to be an issue for Indiana. The 6-foot-1 guard has missed five out of the Fever's nine games this season because of a lingering ankle injury.

After sitting out her team's first two games of the campaign, Cunningham, who joined the Fever in the offseason via trade, made her debut on May 22. She lasted four games before she ended up re-injuring the same ankle on May 30, and has since sat out Indiana's last three contests.

At this point, the last thing the Fever want is to make this problem even worse. This is exactly why head coach Stephanie White is taking a cautious approach in terms of Cunningham's return to action.

“The biggest thing is just listening to the training staff and trusting our gut when we get her out there and see her moving,” White said on Thursday during practice, via Chloe Peterson of IndyStar.

“If there's any sort of questions or hesitancy in movement patterns … that maybe it's just not balanced or unequal, that we scale it back a little bit and that we be patient on that. And making sure the first time that she's out there isn't a game, right? It's working our way back in practice.”

Cunningham has been practicing with the team throughout the week, but as White indicated in her statement, there is no rush to bring her back.

The Fever's next game is on Saturday against the defending champions, the New York Liberty, and as of right now, Cunningham's status for that matchup remains up in the air.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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