Indiana’s basketball spotlight has dimmed in recent weeks as both the Pacers and the Fever have lost their brightest stars to injury. Tyrese Haliburton, the Pacers‘ floor general who carried his team to the NBA Finals, is sidelined for the entire 2025-26 season after tearing his Achilles tendon in Game 7 against Boston.
Across town, rookie sensation Caitlin Clark has missed 14 straight games with a right groin strain and a bone bruise in her left ankle, leaving her day-to-day as the Fever‘s season nears its conclusion.
For two athletes accustomed to dazzling crowds with their playmaking, the transition to the sidelines has been a difficult one. But Haliburton revealed that the shared experience has forged an important friendship, giving both players someone to lean on through the frustrations of rehab.
At his youth camp last weekend, Haliburton shuffled through the gym in a walking boot, a reminder of how long the road back from an Achilles tear can be.
Haliburton celebrates “small wins”
Still, he spoke optimistically about the incremental progress that defines recovery.
“I’m walking now on my boot,” Haliburton said, via WISH-TV. “Getting closer to walking full time in my shoe, so that’s exciting for me. Every couple weeks it’s kind of like a new benchmark, a new achievement for me, so just being able to walk, it’s like the small wins right now. It’s taking it a day at a time. I have good days, bad days. But yeah, things are going well.”
The Pacers have already ruled him out for the season, prioritizing his long-term health over any possibility of an accelerated return.
“It’s just about getting 100 percent, not necessarily as fast as I can, but getting 100% is important,” Haliburton said. “I don’t want to come back and be 85, 90%, I want to be able to come back at 100 percent.”
Clark’s frustrating stop-and-go
Clark‘s situation is different but no less taxing. After electrifying the WNBA and setting the single-season assists record earlier this year, she has been forced to watch from the bench since mid-July. Her combination of injuries has kept her in a holding pattern, and while there remains a chance she returns before the Fever close the season on September 11, there is no official timetable.
Haliburton admitted that Clark‘s presence during rehab has made the process more bearable.
“It’s been important just to have somebody to lean on and talk to,” he said. “I think we’ve grown the relationship to where we can talk about more than just basketball. Obviously, we connect a lot through basketball. We get guarded the same sometimes. Our offensive issues, our defensive issues – they’re similar.
“So it sucks that she’s been hurt for as long as she has, but for us to be able to communicate, even in her recovery, has been great. We lift at the same time, so it’s just us two in the weight room, and we spend a lot of time together. I guess it’s a good thing, but I wish she was playing. Still, it’s good to have each other to lean on in a time like this.”
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