Female basketball star responds to claims she deliberately poked rival in eye

Female basketball star DiJonai Carrington has rubbished suggestions she poked Caitlin Clark in the eye on purpose during the Connecticut Sun’s Game 1 victory over Indiana Fever.

The incident in question occurred in the opening quarter of the teams’ WNBA Playoffs First-Round meeting, with Clark clearly in some discomfort as she went down in a heap on the court, clutching her face.

The 22-year-old Indiana Fever sensation, this week named the WNBA Rookie of the Year, was later seen sporting a nasty-looking black eye in the aftermath of the Fever’s 93-69 defeat.

However, Clark’s bruising appeared to have eased significantly as she spoke to the media on Tuesday and the youngster is expected to play a key role again at Mohegan Sun Arena, where the Fever will attempt to level up the series.

‘It feels good. It looks okay too, so I’m glad,’ Clark told reporters when asked for an update on her eye.

‘It wasn’t intentional by any means.

‘You just watch the play, it wasn’t intentional.’

Clark’s personal rivalry with Carrington has been a key talking point in the WNBA this season and some fans of the Fever even suggested that the eye poke was deliberate.

But Carrington claimed she was not even aware she had struck Clark at the time and would never knowingly injure an opponent.

‘I don’t even know why I would intend to hit anybody in the eye,’ Carrington said.

‘That doesn’t even make sense to me. But no, I didn’t. I didn’t know I hit her, actually.’

Carrington stressed she was not ‘the type of player’ to intentionally go out and try to cause injury to rival players.

‘I was trying to make a play on the ball,’ she added.

‘I guess I followed through and I hit her. Obviously, it’s never intentional.

‘That’s not even the type of player that I am.’

Despite their heavy loss in Game 1, Clark is confident the Fever can regroup and get the better of Carrington and Co.

‘We know we’re capable of beating this team. We have done it,’ she explained.

‘Obviously, they’re really, really good and we know it’ll be a challenge, but I don’t think it’s anything we’re shying away from. I think you just embrace the challenge.

‘We know we didn’t have our best [Sunday] and maybe the final score really seems like we did get blown out, but we had it to six points. We had it to eight points. It was just we could never really get over the hump.’

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