Women’s football vs the ACL INJURY

By Holly Bartlett

ACL injuries are something all footballers fear, however for female footballers the fear comes with every reaching tackle and slide in a game or training session.

Injuries like these have quickly gained more media attention as events such as the women’s Euro’s and World Cup had significantly more coverage than in previous years, so more people are seeing the rate at which this injury is occurring.

The ACL, anterior cruciate ligament, is one of the ligaments located in the knee joint holding bones and cartilage together. When the ACL becomes injured it can require surgery and months of rehabilitation, setting back an athlete’s career by months and depending on timing it could mean missing major tournaments, such as the World Cup or Olympics.

Studies by the British Orthopaedic Association show that female athletes are up to 6 times more likely to suffer from an ACL injury then males. This has clearly been shown as teams all over the world suffer the consequences of the injury, from Leah Williams (England), Alexia Putellas (Spain), Simone Magill (Northern Ireland) and most recent Sam Kerr (Australia). These can happen during a world cup match or just a normal training session.

When Simone Magill sustained her injury, it was the 79th minute of Northern Ireland’s debut performance in the group stages of the Women’s European Championships in 2022, as soon as she went down though she knew it was something more serious. Female footballers live in fear of injuries like this as they know the long term consequences it can have.

In recent years there an increase in research into why women face the higher likelihood of getting ACL injuries over men. The dire action needed to help look into why this was all happening was finally recognised by UEFA as in December it was announced that a new initiative is being set up to raise awareness and prevention of ACL injuries. In this initiative they plan to send out a questionnaire to women’s football communities to gather insight into the problem. They then hope to publish a consensus on ACL injury prevention and management by the summer of 2024. By finally being acknowledge by a large football governing body it allows for hope even at the grassroot level of football to finally get answers on how to prevent these injuries in women and girls from a young age.

However, as good as this initiative is it still does not help answer the question as to why women are more likely to get an ACL injury than men. Dr Katrine Okholm Kryger, a lecturer in sports medicine from St Mary’s University in London, spoke to the BBC highlighting when looking at women’s football in research and the media it can be presented that women are too ‘fragile’ or that it’s because of hormone fluctuation, even though this has not been shown as a cause of the injuries. This lack of research into the area in shown then to both effect a women’s health but also the portrayal of women’s football and sport in the media.

Woman’s football isn’t just Arsenal and FC Barcelona, it’s also the local football clubs all over the world, where young girls find their love for the sport. Funding into injury prevention must also filter down to the grassroot levels to make sure every woman and girl experiences the benefits of the new strive for research into the question of women vs ACL injuries. The Women’s World Cup held in Australia this past summer has helped inspire girls across the world to take up football as 2 billion people worldwide watch the tournament according to FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the tournament itself breaking records in ticket sales and broadcast figures. Figures such as these highlight how woman’s football is just as entertaining to watch as their male counterparts.

The repercussions of the increased attention to injuries like ACL injuries in women’s football could mean similar could happen in other sports. By finally having more of a focus on woman’s health and how injuries can affect them differently to men it can allow more women to participate in sport without fears of the unknown.

Holly Bartlett is a Sport Reporter for The Scoop and an International Relations and Conflict Studies student at Queen’s University Belfast

Edited by: Ryan Brolly