The WSL’s ACL epidemic
- Gaby Harman-Craddock
- Nov 21, 2024
- 3 min read
By Gaby Harman-Craddock (21/11/24)
For regular followers of the Women’s Super League, the news of a new ACL injury is a sad yet all too common experience. In the first four matchdays of the 24/25 season, there were four ACL injuries that keep players from playing for up to 12 months each time.
This last matchday, Chelsea Football Club confirmed that defender Kadeisha Buchanan suffered a torn ACL during their game against Liverpool. So, why are these injuries so common? The answer is, well, we don’t know yet.
Back in April, a 3-year research project known as ‘Project ACL’ was launched by players’ union FIFPRO and the Professional Footballers Association in collaboration with Nike and Leeds Beckett University. The project is designed to “increase player availability by reducing ACL injuries.”
The study will review existing research of the sport and existing injury reduction programmes. There will be a needs assessment of the resources and facilities available to WSL clubs and tracking of the workload and travel undertaken by WSL players. Environmental factors and playing conditions will also be analysed, as well as the effects of female-specific football boots.
Chloë Gough is a personal trainer and former Great Britain TeamGym gymnast. Back in 2019, she tore her ACL after landing a twisting somersault.
“I’ve done gymnastics since I was six years old and very competitively, up to international level,” Chloë said.
“I actually dislocated my femur from the whole joint and then I relocated it myself by snapping my leg straight but as I landed, I heard something snap. I just remember it feeling really loose. I could walk on it, but it was a really bizarre feeling.”
Chloë spoke candidly about her experience with the injury, offering valuable insight to WSL fans who see the impact of the injury week-to-week.
“I was 23 at the time, I was literally at the top of my career,” Chloë explained. “I was just gutted because it’s something you’re training so hard for, putting in so many hours in the gym, it was my whole life and suddenly I thought oh my God this is it, it’s over.”
With an ACL injury, athletes are looking at a 9–12-month recovery time. For Chloë, rehabilitation started with “prehab, so strengthening as much as I could around the joint, and then, after surgery, trying to get as much muscle stimulation as possible and making sure I could get my full range of motion back.”
“I was in the gym four or five times a week, working with my surgeon and having weekly check-ups with my physio whilst in the recovery process,” Chloë explained. Alongside her rehab work, Chloë also had “a lot of dry needling done and massage on it to help break down scar tissue.”
Overall, the recovery process is a long and hard one, and Chloë’s story about her own injury indicates what athletes are prepared to go through to retain their pre-injury levels of fitness and performance.
When asked how she sympathised with her fellow female athletes struggling with these massive injuries, Chloë responded by saying, “it is hard to understand why it is happening and it should be looked into. There must be something we can do to lower the risk of it happening.”
Those with a strong interest in the women’s game I’m sure share this hope to find the cause of these severe yet frequent injuries. As we await the results of Project ACL, female athletes are still waiting to find out how to measure and reduce their own risk.
The number of athletes missing out on minutes for club and country needs to decrease in order for the women’s game to progress. Let’s all hope that an answer is found soon.
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