Oct 12,2024
Injuries are an unfortunate, yet unavoidable, part of a career in professional sport.
Women's football is no exception, with the scourge of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries a particular concern in the game, its diagnosis posing the gravest possibility of ending a player's career.
The Republic of Ireland women's team has suffered greatly in this regard, with Jess Ziu the latest victim. The West Ham star suffered her second ACL injury just before the Women’s Super League season began in September. Ziu has since completed surgery and is going through recovery.
It's estimated 25-30 players missed last year's World Cup with ACL injuries, while Irish Rugby and women's GAA have also been greatly affected by the all too common occurrence.
There is an the ACL epidemic in women’s sport, with more medical professionals examining why they are so common.
"There’s a thing called the notch of the knee and it’s where the ACL sits inside the notch," he explained.
"In females it tends to be slightly narrower than males and that’s one reason why it could be an increased risk of the ACL turn."
Withers notes that football is a sport that requires a frequent amount of pivoting, which involves extra movement of the ACL.
"Soccer is quite a high pivoting sport," he added.
"70% of it is a non-contact injury. In soccer and GAA there’s a lot of twisting and turning and those are the type of scenarios where the ACL is more prone to turn."
Even though ACL injuries are a recurring challenge in sport, there are developing methods being put in place to counteract this.
"There was a study done where they looked at injury prevention programmes and there’s a few out there," elaborated Withers.
"It's looking at a warm-up routine to try and reduce the risk of the injuries happening. There’s one called the FIFA 11+ which is quite a good one. It’s designed to try and reduce the risk of the injury occurring."
The FIFA 11+ programme consists of three parts: slow-speed running exercises, core and leg strength exercises, and moderate to high speed running exercises.
With a total of 15 exercises, this formula is recommended as a standard warm-up at the beginning of every football practice session twice a week at least. Before matches, only parts one and three are required.
In regards to women’s football, the FIFA 11+ warm-up has decreased major injuries in females between the ages of 13 to 18 at high risk of knee and ACL setbacks by 50%.
There's also been the launch of 'Project ACL', a joint initiative between FIFpro, Leeds Beckett University, Nike and the Professional Footballers’ Association.
The three-year project will consist of research on players in the Women’s Super League to try and find a better way to combat ACL injuries. Female footballers are six times more likely to suffer an ACL than their male counterparts. The physical trauma is one thing, but it's also a psychological battle as players try to get back to their best one arduous step at a time.
Birmingham City player and Ireland international Jamie Finn suffered an ACL injury prior to a friendly against Italy last February.
"I’m back running now which is really nice because obviously my sport is running so to not be running for this long was tough. It’s really nice to hit those milestones. It’s been long and kind of difficult but also rewarding when you see the progress you make."
Finn explained how she wants to raise awareness about the increase of ACL injuries among female footballers.
"I don’t think there’s one clear-cut reason why this happens but if there are a lot of athletes coming together and saying 'this is my experience, well this is mine, are there some similarities, are there not?’"
Finn commended the medical professionals that have helped her throughout her recovery process.
"My physio Rachel plays for the Dublin ladies team in Gaelic football and then Sammy my S&C (coach) trains her and the team so it was actually really nice that they came from a sporting background as in a team kind of environment, so they knew exactly how I felt.
"They’ve just been very honest about the situation I'm in. But, if you have the right people around you, the right coaching, you’ll be OK and they’ve been brilliant to be fair."
Finn said she'd like to see initiatives like Project ACL expand to the Women’s Championship and other leagues.
"I think it happens to a lot of girls in the Championship as well, it’s not just the WSL," she added.
"If they could branch into the Championship that would be really good because as I said, it’s happening to a lot of players and probably even further down from the Championship as well."
