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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Stephen Burgen and Hannah Cauhépé in Barcelona

‘Sexism is the risk factor’: football’s race to learn more about ACL injuries

The Club Esportiu Europa squad perform neuro-cognitive exercises that aim to improve players’ abilities to take decisions during games.
The Barcelona-based Club Esportiu Europa squad perform neurocognitive exercises that aim to improve players’ abilities to take decisions during games. Photograph: Hannah Cauhepe

After 30 years of research, it is still a mystery why women footballers are five to eight times more likely to sustain a career-threatening anterior cruciate ligament injury than their male counterparts.

For physicians such as Joan Carles Monllau, one of Europe’s top orthopaedic surgeons who has operated on the double Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas’s ACL injury, as well as Barcelona men’s star Gavi and many other top players, biology remains the determining factor in why women are more prone to ACL injuries.

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