It happened about 10 minutes into a Crystal Palace v Lewes match. There was a hum of excitement in the Dripping Pan, Lewes FC’s football stadium. Ashlee Hincks ran down the wing, received the ball and went to cross it to a teammate. She planted one foot down and prepared to strike the ball with her other foot. But her boot got stuck in the grass; her body kept turning. “Everyone says they hear a pop or a crack. I heard a crack,” she says now. The pain was severe, and Hincks had to be carried off the pitch. She sat in the ambulance praying it was a dislocated kneecap.
It was 8 September 2019. Hincks, then 30, was a striker for Crystal Palace. She had scored more than 25 goals since she had arrived from Millwall Lionesses the year before and had been named player of the season. But now what she dreaded most had happened: she had torn her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
