Fever’s injury woes continue as Sydney Colson, Sophie Cunningham leave game before loss to then-winless Sun

The Indiana Fever’s injury woes continued Friday when Sydney Colson and Sophie Cunningham both left their 85-83 loss to the Connecticut Sun — who entered the game as the lone winless team in the league — with injuries. 

Colson, who had been inserted into the starting lineup in place of Caitlin Clark, departed with a leg injury in the first quarter and was ruled out shortly after halftime. Cunningham, who took Colson’s place with the starters to begin the second half, rolled her ankle in the fourth quarter and did not return. 

It’s too early to know how much time, if any, either player will miss. Fever coach Stephanie White did not provide an update after the game. 

With just under 90 seconds remaining in the first quarter, Colson was driving to her right and lost control of the ball. Sun guard Jacy Sheldon dove to the floor to try and gain possession, and rolled up Colson’s leg in the process. As the Sun took off the other way, Colson remained down. 

After the Sun scored, the Fever took a timeout to stop play, and Colson was attended to by the team’s medical staff. Colson briefly tried to remain on the bench, but then hobbled back to the locker room. While she walked under her own power, she was moving gingerly. 

White called Colson’s injury a “gut punch,” and said it made the team “reconfigure” what they were doing on the offensive end. 

“It affected us in the second quarter, no doubt,” White continued. “Not having another primary ballhandler… it kind of punched us in the gut for a little while. But the reality is this stuff happens. We’ve seen it time and time again in our league. We can’t take two and a half quarters to figure it out.”

Colson, who made her WNBA debut in 2011, signed with the Fever in free agency this winter. She was primarily brought in for her experience, and had only received spot minutes in the team’s first four games. 

When Clark went down with a quad injury, however, Colson was inserted into the Fever’s starting lineup. As the only other true point guard on the roster, she was the natural choice. 

“[Colson] is an elite communicator,” White said earlier this week. “She is in every huddle that we have, whether she’s on the floor or not. She sees things from that point guard position. And getting us into offense. It’s gonna look different without the ball in Caitlin’s hands. What are our looks, who can we get our looks for? And then the ability to communicate that to everybody in live action. That’s the piece that we’re still growing with. We can’t call a timeout every time to get a matchup or recognize a switch, so she can help us with that on the floor.” 

White also said Cunningham would get a chance to run the offense in Clark’s stead, but she didn’t get much of an opportunity Friday. 

In the middle of the fourth quarter, Cunningham set an off-ball screen for Kelsey Mitchell, which Sheldon blew up by running straight through Cunningham’s chest. As Cunningham tried to regain her balance, she rolled her right ankle — the same one she injured during the preseason, which kept her out of the first two games of the regular season — and collapsed to the ground in serious pain. 

Cunningham remained on the floor for a while as the Fever’s medical staff assessed the situation. She was eventually brought to her feet and had to be helped to the locker room. Cunningham did not return to the game. 

The Fever are now 0-2 without Clark in the lineup and have fallen to 2-4 on the season. Clark’s initial two-week timeline has her out for at least two more games, and the earliest she could return is June 10 against the Atlanta Dream. If Colson and Cunningham are both sidelined until then as well, things could get even uglier for the Fever.