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ACL injuries in women's football: Current casualties, former stars who have suffered injuries and everything else you need to know

Sophie Ingle of Chelsea in action during a pre-season friendly match between Chelsea FC Women and Feyenoord Women at Kingsmeadow on September 07, 2024 in Kingston upon Thames, England.

Sophie Ingle, who is one of the players with ACL injuries, is in her second spell at Chelsea and re-joined the club in 2018(Image credit: Harriet Lander - Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

ACL injuries in women's football is an ever-growing problem with several players currently on the sidelines with the issue.

A three-year ACL study in England's Women's Super League was launched in April with other studies also in progress to determine why the injury is more prevalent in the women's game.

Research already carried out on ACL's suggests women's footballers are two-six times more likely to sustain the injury than male footballers.

ACL injuries: Which high profile stars have recovered from the issue?

Multiple player's missed the 2023 World Cup because of the injury, including England's Beth Mead and Leah Williamson. Mead and Williamson, who both play for Arsenal, have both returned to the pitch since then.

Vivianne Miedema, who played for Arsenal at the time, sustained the injury in December 2022 during a Women's Champions League match. She made it back to the pitch before leaving the Gunners for Manchester City this summer.

Most recently, Manchester City's Jill Roord came back for her club after rupturing her ACL back in January.

Other players to have suffered with the injury include Alexia Putellas, Giulia Gwinn, Caroline Weir, Janine Beckie and Marie-Antoinette Katoto.

Dr Stacey Emmonds, an expert in Sports Performance at Leeds Beckett University, says that these high numbers should decline as the women's game develops but that risk factors which may be inherent to women can still be influenced.

We know there is research looking at neuromuscular programmes, Emmonds said [This is] not being explored in female athletes. There's a need for broad research and we feel one of the biggest things is the environmental factors in the women's game.

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Current ACL injury list in the WSL

There are currently 18 players recovering from an ACL injury in England's top-flight. In FourFourTwo's view, individual clubs should carry out research to see if they can identify any patterns around their players sustaining the injuries.