ACL injuries in women’s football: FA and WSL launch study into what puts players at risk

The FA and WSL Football have launched a study into ACL injuries in women’s football. Researchers will compare players who have suffered the injury with those who haven’t, looking at everything from match minutes to how players trained before turning professional.

Players and staff from every club in the Barclays WSL and WSL2 will be invited to take part. The FA is funding the PhD project, which is led by Imperial College London researcher Hanna Lehtovirta and involves sports knee surgeon Simon Ball.

What will the FA and WSL ACL study look at?

The FA and WSL research project will start with a survey comparing players who have suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury since the 2018–19 season with players who haven’t. It will ask about injury history, training and match workloads, and hormonal, nutritional and psychological factors.

Researchers will then interview players and speak to medical, performance and coaching staff. Those interviews will explore how clubs manage training and what they already do to prevent injuries.

Match minutes are one part of the picture. The researchers also want to understand how players’ workloads are managed in training and how their experiences before turning professional might relate to injury risk.

Why ACL injuries are a priority for the women’s game

Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Leah Williamson and Sam Kerr are among the players who have suffered ACL injuries in recent years. The injury can keep players out for months. Research cited by BBC Sport suggests female footballers are two to six times more likely to sustain one than male players.

“ACL injuries remain one of the biggest challenges facing female footballers,” said Ritan Mehta, the FA’s head of women’s medical. The FA hopes the findings will guide future work on prevention and rehabilitation. WSL Football medical governance lead Abosede Ajayi said they could also help inform medical standards across the women’s game.

The study could help clubs identify which aspects of their training and prevention programmes deserve a closer look. If a factor appears more often among players who have torn their ACL, researchers can then investigate whether it contributes to the injury.