When England captain Leah Williamson collapsed during the 12th minute of Arsenal’s match against Manchester United last week it was impossible for any fan of the women’s game not to fear the worst.
Two days later the worst was confirmed. Williamson had ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), dealing another devastating blow to the Lionesses and throwing their World Cup chances into crisis.
As the dust settles and England begin to pick up the pieces, questions are once again being asked from frustrated players, fans and managers about why ACL injuries — one of the most severe of all knee injuries — have so heavily blighted the women’s game, and why so little has been done about it.
Female footballers are between two and eight times more likely to suffer an ACL injury than men. In the last few months alone, Williamson’s Arsenal team-mates Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema have both suffered the same fate, as did Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas and France striker Marie-Antoinette Katoto last year.
While theories as to why range from biological differences (including the possible impact of menstrual cycles and hip diameter) to gender disparities such as women’s access to training, sport science, and rehabilitation, nothing concrete has so far emerged. That’s no surprise when you learn that only about six per cent of exercise science studies are done exclusively on women.
Women’s football is currently operating in the face of a catastrophic information gap — a gap that speaks to a frustrating wider imbalance in general women’s healthcare research. The fact that some of the world’s best players can be wiped out by the same injury almost consecutively, and still be met by head-scratching is an indictment of the state of sports science research.
What would be the response, I wonder, if the likes of Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappé, Harry Kane and Karim Benzema were to suffer the same fate in quick succession? No doubt the earth would stop spinning on its axis until an answer was found.
After decades of neglect, the women’s game has been riding high here on the momentum from last year’s Euros. Its stars, and all those who follow, need to be looked after.
