There is an unavoidable association of traversability of wormholes to the violation of null energy condition which in turn indicates the presence of exotic or non-exotic matter in the wormhole geometry. The exotic matter possesses the negative energy that is required to sustain the wormhole. Recently studies are done to solve this problem so as to avoid the exotic matter. In this work, we attempt to find such solution in the framework of [Formula: see text] gravity where [Formula: see text], here [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are Ricci scalar and trace of energy momentum tensor respectively, using the Yukawa–Casimir shape function. For Yukawa–Casimir wormhole, it is assumed that the exotic energy is sourced from the Casimir energy density. We have examined the energy conditions using Yukawa–Casimir shape function [Formula: see text] where [Formula: see text] is a positive mass scale. We have taken different values of [Formula: see text] to study the role of Yukawa–Casimir energy in formation of traversable wormholes. The equilibrium aspect of the model is also investigated with the help of TOV equation.