Players who compete in the top two levels of German women\u2019s football are four times more likely to rupture their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) than their male counterparts, according to the German Football Association (DFB).<\/p>\n
The governing body has funded a central injury and illness registry in women\u2019s football for three years. So far in the Frauen Bundesliga, Germany\u2019s top flight, there have been a reported seven ACL injuries 10 games into the current campaign. In the men\u2019s Bundesliga, meanwhile, there have been three such injuries.<\/p>\n
Among those to have suffered the injury is the Bayern Munich midfielder Lena Oberdorf. The Germany international recovered from an ACL injury to start this season and played six matches before rupturing the same ligament in the same knee. The DFB has implemented several measures to try to limit the amount of ACL injuries sustained by male and female players, including \u201ctraining formats for medical staff and content on injury prevention in coach education\u201d and \u201ca scientifically supervised test battery with individual training recommendations\u201d.<\/p>\n
ACL injuries are prevalent across the women\u2019s game with a reported seven players enduring one in England\u2019s Women\u2019s Super League already this season. Among them is Michelle Agyemang, who ruptured an ACL<\/a> during England\u2019s 3-0 friendly win over Australia last month. And according to ACL Women Football Club, a social media account that collates information on the injuries in the sport via research and club announcements, France\u2019s Premi\u00e8re Ligue has recorded six ACL issues and Italy\u2019s Serie A Femminile two so far this season. None have been recorded in Spain\u2019s Liga F.<\/p>\n ACL injuries have become more common in the women\u2019s game than in the men\u2019s, leading to studies into the reasons. Fifa is funding research into discovering if hormonal changes impact the likelihood of the injury occurring in women.<\/p>\n Saket Tibrewal is a consultant trauma and orthopaedic knee surgeon at Cromwell hospital in London. He conducts three to four ACL surgeries a week and says medical professionals do not yet have answers regarding the higher rate among female players.<\/p>\n Katie Reid will miss the rest of the season for Arsenal after rupturing an ACL. Photograph: Izzy Poles\/AMA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cWe are still in the infancy of really understanding this,\u201d Tibrewal said. \u201cI think the reason for that is women\u2019s football has exploded on a professional level over the last few years. Five years ago there were probably the same amount of injuries but people weren\u2019t aware of it. I think that it is now so much more mainstream we are seeing it a lot more.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biomechanics of women are very different to men, in terms of muscle strength and landing mechanics. Women\u2019s bone anatomy is also smaller than men\u2019s. Where the ACL goes in, it is in the middle of the knee; we call it the notch. Women seem to have smaller notches; is that a reason to cause impediment or [more] force through it? We don\u2019t know, but it\u2019s something we are looking at.\u201d<\/p>\n The Chelsea and England midfielder Keira Walsh recently said the increasingly busy schedule that female players have to adhere to could be another factor. \u201cMaybe sometimes we do play too many games in a congested fixture schedule. There\u2019s not enough recovery time,\u201d said Walsh. \u201cYou can do the research, but ultimately you need to listen to the ones going through it and how we can best find the solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Moving the Goalposts<\/p>\n No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women\u2019s football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n With women footballers rupturing ACLs at such a high rate, what does the future hold for limiting the injury? \u201cWe are going to know a lot more in the next five years, which will hopefully push us on even further,\u201d said Tibrewal. \u201cIf players do get ACL injuries, we are better now at getting players back to a very high level. We are on an upward curve on getting excellent outcomes from these surgeries. Watch this space to where we go next with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Get in touch<\/p>\n If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email moving.goalposts@theguardian.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n