An alarming statistic in women’s football has led to England captain Leah Williamson begging for a new approach to the sport.
Williamson is among a whopping 37 players absent from this year’s Women’s World Cup due to knee injuries and particularly ruptured anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL).
Speaking on British Radio, the 2022 European Championships winner said it is time for urgent change.
“If you ever needed a wake-up call, I’d say this year with the ACLs is it,” she said.
“If nobody wakes up now then we’ve got a bit of a problem.
“ACLs alone there’s 37 players missing from this World Cup, which is disgusting.
“There’s so many (differences between men and women). Our hips are aligned slightly differently, hormones and stress all contribute.”
Williamson is one of three England players, along with Beth Mead and Keira Walsh, to have picked up serious knee injuries.
Williamson, Mead and Fran Kirby sustained injuries prior to the World Cup, while Walsh sustained a knee injury in England’s 1-0 victory over Denmark.
Arsenal star Williamson wants to see an immediate improvement for how female talent is prepared in this new era of professionalism in the women’s game.
“The women’s game, my generation, one day we’re a kid playing football and the next we’re a professional,” she said.
“We got form training a few times a week (before moving) to training every day, playing Champions League, World Cups, European Cups.
“Until it changes to be more like the boys, where they’re literally bred for it from day one of being signed at six years old, this will happen more.
“We’re not ready for that. There’s so much now that we need to make more focused to women or this will happen over and over again.
“Our bodies are completely different, the studies around professional sports women are few and far between.”
Australia’s Chloe Logarzo, Ellie Carpenter and Kyah Simon have all suffered ACL injuries, with doubts still remaining over Simon’s fitness.
The Dutch are also without their all-time leading women’s goal scorer Vivianne Miedema.
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