Fresh calls have been made for urgent research into a large number of ACL injuries in women’s football following Vivianne Miedema suffering a ruptured ACL injury for Arsenal.
Miedema suffered the injury playing for the Gunners in their Champions League tie against Lyon on Thursday 15 December and the forward has now been ruled out of next year’s World Cup. It is just the latest in a long list of women’s footballers to suffer an ACL injury, including her Arsenal teammate Beth Mead.
It also means that five of the top 20 players in the 2022 Women’s Ballon d’Or list are currently nursing ACL injuries, with winner Alexia Putellas, ninth-placed Cataria Macario, and 16th Marie-Antoinette Katoto along with Mead (second) and Miedema (11th).
Women Six Times More Likely to Suffer Non-Contact ACL Injuries
Speaking to Sky Sports’ Inside the WSL, health specialist Dr Emma Ross said that females are “up to six times more likely to have a non-contact ACL injury than their male counterparts”.
Dr Ross continued to discuss the raised levels of oestrogen during the menstrual cycle which can affect the stability of joints as a potential reason, though she admits that they do not yet have all the answers.
“We published a paper about a year ago which showed that in sport and exercise science research, only about 6% of the studies are done exclusively on females – meaning they study things that are happening to the female body – so we don’t have a lot of research on female athletes.
“But what we do know about the menstrual cycle and injury is that the changing hormones across the cycle can impact the physiology and biomechanics of the body.
“For example, when oestrogen is elevated in the menstrual cycle, and that happens in about the second week, it can affect the stability of joints. It can interfere with the collagen in our joints and it can create looser, more lax joints. A loose joint is therefore less stable and more inclined to injury.
“So, we do have some information about loose joints, but what we don’t have is the end step of whether that really does increase the risk for injury in female athletes.”
Calls for ACL Research
Lyon midfielder Catarina Macario, who has been sidelined with a torn ACL since June, added to the calls for further research into ACL injuries in women’s sports in the aftermath of Miedema’s injury.
She was quoted as saying by Stadiumastro: “I think we need more research that focuses specifically on women athletes, women’s elite athletes.
“Right now, I think it’s mainly generalised into male sports. We need to really hone in on this or else, you know, we’ll keep seeing several elite athletes be out for several periods of time.
“It’s really a shame for the sport because you don’t want to see this.
“You want to see them play, and I just hope that FIFA will really take the time to look into this, and sports scientists will take the time to look into injury prevention and just really focus on the research that’s like, how can we improve the game and how can we make it safer for women to play?”
