Link between ACL injuries and greater demands on female footballers, says union

LONDON – Increased workload, travel and insufficient rest have contributed to an increase in injuries – including torn anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL) – among women professionals, according to a report published by global football players’ union Fifpro.

Of the 139 elite women players in the top leagues in England, France, Germany and Spain who were analysed over the past two seasons, 58 were injured, illustrating how playing for both club and country can lead to an increased risk of lower limb injuries.

The most frequent injuries were to the knee (32 per cent) and the thigh (29 per cent). Twelve injuries were ACL ones (14 per cent) and 19 involved the hamstring (23 per cent).

ACL injuries were a topic of the Women’s World Cup because of the number of top players who were sidelined with the injury, including England’s Beth Mead and Leah Williamson, Vivianne Miedema of the Netherlands and Canada’s Janine Beckie.

According to medical research, women are at least four times more likely to have an ACL tear than men.

Fifpro’s research showed that players who suffered ACL injuries played more games, had more instances of fewer than five days’ rest between games and had less rest in the four weeks before the injury compared to players who were not injured. They also travelled farther and for longer and crossed more time zones.

The organisation’s chief medical officer Vincent Gouttebarge, who conducted the study with Fifpro’s sport science consultant Steve den Hollander, said that while the data is not as robust as they would have liked, the research shows that a condensed game schedule is connected to a higher frequency of injuries, especially ACL injuries.

“Not only should a better-balanced match calendar be coordinated among all international and national stakeholders, travel demands and quality of multidisciplinary teams who are managing players also need to be considered to provide footballers with healthy playing conditions,” den Hollander said in a statement.

Consensus among sport scientists and also players who have suffered from ACL injuries is that there are multifaceted risk factors.

“That’s why it’s so important to improve the conditions for women’s players – rest, travel, the surfaces on which we play and, of course, all those studies,” Spain midfielder Alexia Putellas, a member of their World Cup-winning team, told Fifpro.

“It is only recently that women’s players have started to become professionals in this sport, and there has hardly been time to carry out these types of studies and learn a little more about the body of women footballers or women athletes. I think these are things that need to be improved.”

Earlier in December, European football’s governing body Uefa introduced a women’s health expert panel with the goal of gaining a deeper understanding of ACL injuries and their occurrence in the women’s game. REUTERS