Liberty Coach Shares 'Only Solution' to WNBA's Mounting Injury Problem

Unfortunately, it's just the latest in a lengthy string of blows to some of the game's biggest stars.

With Clark's injury attracting much of the limelight ahead of a marquee matchup between New York and Indiana, Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello offered a fix to the league's mounting injury problem.

"There has been a lot this year," Brondello acknowledged in Wednesday's pregame press conference. "What's the solution? Probably having a longer season, having less games on top of each other. I think that's the only solution. Cause these players are conditioned, but sometimes that's part of the game. Hopefully, maybe in the future, we'll have a longer season and a little less games in the week."

The WNBA expanded its schedule to a 44-game regular season for 2025. While that presents an opportunity for increased revenue and popularity, it also places an added physical burden on the league's players.

The Fever are a prime example of the concerns Brondello has with the current state of the WNBA schedule.

Wednesday's game against the Liberty, a non-competitive 98-77 loss, concluded a stretch of five games in eight days for Indiana, capped off with a road back-to-back in Boston and New York.

Physical fatigue or wear-and-tear can manifest itself in the form of lower-body injuries, a trend that can't be ignored in recent weeks.

Clark's right groin injury is her third different lower-body injury this season, following a left-quad strain on May 24 and a left groin injury on June 24.

Over in Arizona, the Phoenix Mercury's leading scorer Satou Sabally has been sidelined with an ankle sprain since July 3 and will no longer compete in this year's All-Star festivities.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Sky were shorthanded in a 37-point blowout at the hands of the Atlanta Dream on Wednesday, missing key starters Ariel Atkins and All-Star Angel Reese, both of whom were sidelined with leg injuries.

"Ankles and varying degrees of injuries, muscles that have kept them out -- maybe that's a load thing." Brondello posited. "When it gets to muscle, it's more about probably too many games, too much on top of each other. I think that's how it is."

Brondello's had to navigate through injuries this year as well, losing star forward Jonquel Jones to a right ankle sprain on June 19, a re-aggravation of an ankle injury that stems back to a June 5 game against the Washington Mystics. Jones hopes to return after the All-Star break, but her absence contributed to an uneven stretch of play in New York.

Of course, this isn't to say that every injury, lower-body or otherwise, is to be blamed on the structure of the WNBA schedule.

"Sometimes injuries are just bad luck too," Brondello admits. "You saw Rhyne Howard's the other day, that was just really bad luck. Unfortunate."

Howard is another All-Star who will miss this year's event after suffering a scary-looking knee injury against the Fever on Sunday. The 3-time All-Star is now set to miss the remainder of July, at minimum.

Brondello's proposal won't eliminate freak injuries, like the one Howard suffered, or soft tissue issues as a whole. However, it would afford WNBA athletes more time for rest and recovery between games, which could translate to fewer injuries across the league, in theory.

Injuries are an inescapable element of professional sports, but Brondello's remarks should raise some questions about the WNBA's current scheduling model.