Caitlin Clark is out of All-Star weekend.

The Indiana Fever guard injured her right groin on Tuesday night in the final minute of the team’s win over the Connecticut Sun. She said Thursday in a message posted on X that she had to rest her body.

“I am incredibly sad and disappointed to say I can’t participate in the 3-Point Contest or the All-Star Game,” Clark said in the message posted by the Fever. “I have to rest my body. I will still be at Gainbridge Fieldhouse for all the action and I’m looking forward to helping (Liberty coach Sandy Brondello) coach our team to a win.”

Clark was supposed to compete in a loaded 3-point contest tonight and is captain of one of the All-Star teams. The second-year guard was the leading vote getter from the fans and has been a huge reason the league has had a boon in attendance and ratings.

Washington Mystics guard Brittney Sykes and Atlanta Dream forward Brionna Jones were announced as replacements for the All-Star Game by WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. The pair replace Clark and Phoenix’s Satou Sabally, who is also injured and can’t play in Saturday’s game. This will be Sykes’ first All-Star appearance and Jones will be playing in her fourth one.

They haven’t announced a replacement for Clark in the 3-point contest.

Tonight’s 3-point contest is scheduled to include contest record-holder Sabrina Ionescu of the New York Liberty. Ionescu last entered the contest in 2023 and made 25 of her 27 shots in the final round, scoring 37 points. It was the most shots made in a 3-point contest in either the WNBA or NBA.

Allisha Gray of the Atlanta Dream, who made her own history last season winning the 3-point and skills challenge, will try to defend her title in both competitions.

Other participants in the 3-point contest include Washington rookie Sonia Citron and Sparks’ veteran sharp-shooter Kelsey Plum.

The other players competing in the skills challenge will be New York’s Natasha Cloud, Seattle’s Skylar Diggins and Erica Wheeler, and Minnesota’s Courtney Williams.

SOCCER

Olivia Smith became the most expensive player in women’s soccer history when she joined Arsenal from Liverpool for a world record transfer fee of 1 million pounds ($1.34 million).

The new benchmark in women’s soccer surpasses the 900,000 pounds ($1.1 million) Chelsea paid for Naomi Girma from San Diego Wave in January.

“She’s one of the most talented young players in the game and has huge potential for further development here at the club,” Arsenal director of women’s football Clare Wheatley said.

The 20-year-old Canada forward signed a four-year deal, a person with knowledge of the deal told The AP.

Smith’s deal highlights the rapid increase in spending in women’s soccer with transfer records regularly broken in recent years.

Zambia striker Racheal Kundananji set a record when joining Bay FC from Madrid CFF for $788,000 last year, and that figure was quickly exceeded by Girma’s move to Chelsea, becoming the first $1 million women’s soccer player.

As recently as 2020, the most expensive women’s player was Denmark’s Pernille Harder, who joined Chelsea from Wolfsburg for $355,000.

England’s Keira Walsh left Manchester City for Barcelona in 2022 for a deal worth $513,000, and Chelsea broke the record again in 2024 when signing Mayra Ramirez from Levante for $542,000.

But those figures are still a long way behind the men’s game, where Neymar remains the record signing following his 2017 move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for $262 million.

Kylian Mbappe joined PSG for $216 million and is the second-most expensive player of all time.

After one season at Penn State, Smith joined Sporting Lisbon in 2023 and scored 16 goals in 28 appearances. She moved to Liverpool last year and scored nine times in 25 games.

Golf

Ben Martin scored 16 points to take a two-point lead over David Lipsky and Nick Watney after the first round of the Barracuda Championship in Truckee, Ca., the only PGA Tour event that uses the modified Stableford scoring system.

DOPING

Women’s marathon world record-holder Ruth Chepngetich was provisionally suspended for a positive doping test.

Track and field’s Athletics Integrity Unit said Chepngetich tested positive for a banned diuretic and masking agent in March and “opted for a voluntary provisional suspension while the AIU’s investigation was ongoing.”

The Kenyan runner set the world record by almost 2 minutes at the Chicago Marathon last October in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 56 seconds. It was her third win in Chicago.

She also won the marathon at the 2019 world championships in Qatar, where the women’s race started at midnight to avoid extreme daytime heat.

The AIU gave no timetable for a disciplinary case for the 30-year-old runner.

Chepngetich was interviewed in person in Kenya in April and “complied with requests regarding our investigation,” AIU official Brett Clothier said in a statement.

The substance Chepngetich tested positive for, hydrochlorothiazide or HCTZ, can be used to disguise the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

NBA

Damian Lillard is back where he started.

Lillard signed a three-year deal worth $42 million to return to the Portland Trail Blazers, multiple sources reported. The deal had not been officially announced.

Lillard was the sixth pick in the 2012 NBA draft by the Trail Blazers and spent 11 seasons with Portland before he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks just before the 2023-24 season.

The 35-year-old tore his left Achilles tendon during a first-round NBA playoff series against the Indiana Pacers and required surgery. The Bucks waived him earlier this month and stretched the remaining $113 million on his contract.

This past season with the Bucks, Lillard ranked 10th in the league in scoring (24.9) and assists (7.1) while earning his ninth All-Star Game selection.

TENNIS

Ons Jabeur is taking a hiatus from the women’s tennis tour, with the three-time major runner-up saying she wants to “rediscover the joy of simply living.”

Once ranked No. 2 on the WTA Tour, Jabeur has battled injuries in recent years and has fallen to her current No. 71. The 30-year-old from Tunisia retired because of difficulty breathing during her first-round match at Wimbledon, where she reached the final in 2022 and 2023, and won’t be playing as the hard-court swing begins.

“For the past two years, I’ve been pushing myself so hard, fighting through injuries and facing many other challenges,” Jabeur wrote on Instagram. “But deep down, I haven’t felt truly happy on the court for some time now.

“Tennis is such a beautiful sport. But right now, I feel it’s time to take a step back and finally put myself first.”

Jabeur also was the U.S. Open runner-up in 2022, becoming the first woman since Serena Williams in 2019 to reach the final at Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows in the same year. She climbed to No. 2 in the WTA rankings the next week. She is 15-15 this year after her 2024 season was cut short by a shoulder injury.

MOTORSPORTS

A federal judge rejected a request from 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports to continue racing with charters while they battle NASCAR in court, meaning their six cars will race as open entries this weekend at Dover, next week at Indianapolis and perhaps longer than that in a move the teams say would put them at risk of going out of business.