Increased workload and travel and insufficient rest have contributed to an increase in injuries, including torn anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL), among women’s professional players, according to a report by global soccer players union FIFPRO.
Of the 139 elite women players in the top leagues in England, France, Germany and Spain who were analysed over the past two seasons, 58 were injured, illustrating how playing for both club and country can lead to an increased risk in lower limb injuries.
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The most frequent injuries were to the knee (32%) and the thigh (29%). Twelve injuries were ACL injuries (14%) and 19 were hamstring injuries (23%).
ACL injuries were a topic of the 2023 women’s World Cup because of the number of top players who were sidelined with the injury including England’s Beth Mead and Leah Williamson, Vivianne Miedema of the Netherlands and Canada’s Janine Beckie.
FIFPRO’s research showed that players who suffered ACL injuries played more games, had more instances of less than five days rest between games and had less rest in the four weeks prior to the injury compared to players who were not injured. They also travelled further and for longer and crossed more time zones.
FIFPRO’S chief medical officer Vincent Gouttebarge, who conducted the study with FIFPRO’s sport science consultant Steve den Hollander, said while the data is not as robust as they would have liked, the research shows that a condensed game schedule is connected to a higher frequency of injuries, especially ACL injuries.
“Not only should a better-balanced match calendar be co-ordinated among all international and national stakeholders, travel demands and quality of multi-disciplinary teams who are managing players also need to be considered to provide footballers with healthy playing conditions,” Den Hollander said in a news release.
Consensus among sport scientists and players who have suffered from ACL injuries is that there are multi-faceted risk factors.
“That’s why it’s so important to improve the conditions for women’s players: rest, travel, the surfaces on which we play and, of course, all those studies,” Spain midfielder Alexia Putellas told FIFPRO.
“It is only recently that women’s players have started to become professionals in this sport, and there has hardly been time to carry out these types of studies and learn a little more about the body of women’s footballers or women’s athletes. I think these are things that need to be improved.”
Earlier this month, European football governing body UEFA introduced a women’s health expert panel with the goal of gaining a deeper understanding of ACL injuries and their occurrence in the women’s game.
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