Why are there so many ACL injuries in women's football? | 90min Talks
The dreaded ACL injury has become the plague of women’s football. It can happen in an instant but could mean anything from six to 12 months out of action and something has to be done about the rapidly growing prevalence of the problem in the women’s game.
Five of the 20 players nominated for the Ballon d’Or Feminin in 2022 suffered an ACL injury that year, including both of the top two: Alexia Putellas and Beth Mead. Catarina Macario (9th), Vivianne Miedema (11th) and Marie-Antoinette Katoto (17th) joined them.
That is a staggeringly high proportion of the world’s best player in the period of one year.
Only this week, Arsenal announced that full-back Laura Wienroither had suffered an ACL injury. She is the fourth Gunners player to do it this season alone. After Mead and Miedema in the weeks before Christmas, Leah Williamson was the next towards the end of last month.
Williamson and Miedema will miss the World Cup. Mead hasn’t given up hope of making it back onto the pitch in time but is still highly likely to miss out as well.
In the latest episode of 90min Talks, Charlton midfielder Lois Roche and Dr Emma Ross joined Shebahn Aherne and Girls on the Ball to discuss the ACL epidemic.
Lois Roche suffered an ACL injury back in 2022, and detailed how the injury came about:
"I hyper-extended my knee, and I as I did that all my weight went down on that side of my body. I felt a pop and thought 'oh, alright'. I tried to move my knee and it felt fine, then the physio check it and they said there was no damage in my ACL.
"I came back on the pitch and after 10 minutes or so of running around I kick the ball and it felt like it was hanging off from my knee. I came off and when I woke the next day it was stiff but there was no swelling and it didn't feel like anything I didn't have before. But after a few days of it not getting better I went and got an MRI and found out that it was a complete rupture of my ACL.
Roche also discussed how she was fortunate, unlike many other female players, to have her ACL surgery paid for:
"Before I did [injured my ACL] it I didn't really realise the extent of the injury and you kind of just brush it off as 'oh she's done her ACL' it's a common thing. But then when you've actually done it and you see that every time you're going through Twitter you're seeing GoFundMe pages.
"I was in a fortunate position where all mine [surgery] was paid for and I had all the support, but girls in the lower leagues have to pay for their surgery or wait for the NHS which is like an 18 month waiting list."
"18 months to get the surgery, and then nine months recovery period, that's nearly two and a half years out of the sport so more needs to be done, but where's the funding for it and where's the support? In the lower leagues especially I think it's really tough."
Dr Emma Ross, author of 'The Female Body Bible' on the impact football boots have on ACL injuries in the women's game:
"It amazes me that there's no women's boots. Brands will advertise their boots as women's boots but only because they go down to a size three and men's boots don't.
"Women's and men's feet are different, and women's and men's bodies are different. Men have more muscle mass and different distribution of muscle mass so the load going through that foot-to-ground interface is greater.
"You make studs and you make the sole to withstand the capacity of the average man, and then you put an average women in them and as fast and as quick as they are, they're not as strong or as powerful as men. So those boots are now designed to grip a heavy, strong, man into the ground but you've got a lighter woman in them and they're getting anchored to the ground by them. When they need to turn, the grip is too big [to the ground].
"All the science of the boots are completely useless when it comes to females. It is bonkers that we don't have big brands making a selection of women's boots.
"It's not just down to the boot [ACL injuries] but if we look at the long list of reasons and start to take bits out then the list is slightly shorter. People are always going to get injured in sport, but less people will get injured if we can start to shorten that list.