Why do women suffer more ACL injuries than men?

Women’s football is being plagued by ACL injuries. Not only that, but players are succumbing to them at a quicker rate than seems to the case in the men’s game.

But for what reason? And what can be done about it?

Marco Bevilacqua illustrates.

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#FootballInjuries

[cjhklio]

My fiancé used to play for the leicester academy. She played with a few of the lionesses. Her career was cut short by an ACL tear and then another one shortly after returning to playing. She’s now waiting for her 6th or 7th ACL operation and will need a double knee replacement when she’s 30/in her early 30’s and possibly a hip replacement shortly after that for where she’s had to accommodate her weak knees. Bear in mind, she’s only 24

[denniswaweru]

Arsenal women's team have had an injury crisis I have never seen before. Having like 5 players all on ACL injury is insane

[RaulEdu]

Just had my acl and meniscus repaired last year, recovery sucks but it's so much better and faster these days thanks to advancements in medical tech. 30+ years ago those injuries ended many footballers careers.

[-]

I played academy football for Mamelodi Sundowns here in South Africa and when I was 18 I tore my ACL and when I recovered I was just never the same. There was a huge mental block that I couldn't get over, that was my first serious injury and I just developed this fear of getting injured and I stopped playing as passionately as I used too. I just couldn't move as fast as I wanted and I no longer could explode as I could before getting injured (I played as an ATM and my strongest trait was burst ball carries) after tearing my ACL for the 2nd time on the same leg I just had to quit because it was just never meant to be. This is the main reason I don't think I could watch my daughter play football.

[beyourself]

An ACL injury hampers a football player's career, even applies to all athletes, it's really crazy.

[pomdeve]

Its kinda funny that in basketball new generation guys tend to get more injury prone bcs the doctors said played too much competitive games in the aau system. But having less games when younger made women footballers more injury prone.

The landing stuff is very real, theres a lot of that breakdown on how to land after a jump could avoid injuries. Check out comparison of landing from westbrook and derrick rose.

[leighswank]

This comment section cracks me up. They literally brought on a knee repair specialist who specifically explains that data on women's injuries and recovery is badly lacking, but apparently YouTube commenters are onto something he's not about female anatomy. Get a grip.

[mitchellsinton]

wouldn't the factor of having wider hips (larger torque through the joint, elongated muscles, ligaments and tendons) play a factor on the stability, strength, placiticty, and stiffness of the ACL in woman?

[blamedthegnome]

7 times more likely is massive. Hopefully more funding and interest in the Women's game will mean that future generations are better supported at younger ages to help with this. I'd love to see more content like this!

[milk__teee]

Genetics and your biology is one of the worst things about injuries.

I remember a commentator for this Barcelona game with Raphina (brother of Thiago) talk about how they both have knee problems, and it’s genetic. Both have a predisposition to getting injuries, and it’s clear that throughout both of these two siblings careers they have been injured many many times. Yeah, a failing body that isn’t even your fault because you do everything like how you’re suppose to has gotta be one of the worst feelings.

[clarice_leewy]

Thank you for making this video. Unfortunately many of these players won't be physically ready for the FIFA womens world cup in July 2023. ACL injuries are affecting players at the grassroot as well, which needs to be talked about as well.

[TrillBill]

Having wider pelvises is actually the main factor. I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned first. He put "luck" as the #1 reason 😅

[bludgermoey]

My prayers go to any player, male or female whom sustain ACL injuries ❤

[leobestbote]

Now this explains why most players today play at the highest level even in their late 30s, the sports science and behind the scenes logistics has vastly vastly improved, won't be surprised in the 2050s players playing at the top level into their mid 40s

[stellaliu]

Thank you for doing this, finally there is a great and infleuncial youtuber reporting on this issue. There should be more awareness to prevent these injuries. Your channel is so great and doing such great things for the football community. Ur a legend

[joshbrown]

I do think there are another 2 factors which was missed.

1. The grounds they play on are not always the best quality and so there is more chance of trauma being added to the knee when collisions with another player or landing on the ground. This along with the fact that as the game is still in it's infancy of professionalism, the players tend to go in harder on challenges and less gets called as they want the game to be seen as more physical than the men's game (as it helps overcome a lot of the stereotypes).

2.
As the pool of players (talented players) is smaller as the game is still growing, a lot of the talented players have to play a lot of games in congested time tables and so there is less time to rest and heal. I also think this is why ACL's are rising in the men's game as they are being made to play more minutes.

[JeseMdeO]

My cousin played professionaly in Mexico recently and suffered an ACL injury which has had to leave her out of the game perhaps for good.
It's interesting that you guys touch the subject of anatomy because I believe it's possible that the training sessions are also male anatomy based and that may be cause for wear and tear on women.
I can't recall if it was Menotti or someone else, who stated that footballers used to be trained similar to race horses and that caused injury and poor performance. When that changed, so did the game.
Maybe there's something we can still learn from that.

[tiagopelegrineti]

The illustrations on this one were absolute perfection. Congratulations to the arts team!

[cairuxx]

I was listening to a podcast about biomechanics and movement patterns of athletes the other day. I won’t pretend to be an expert, but there’s a big importance on strength of the arch, ankle alignment/height and “bow-setting” while running and during changes of direction that play a part in creating healthy movements for athletes. Modern athletes are moving in an unhealthy way that’s putting way more pressure on the inside of the knee leading to the acl epidemic in sports. I’m more worried about the rising injury tally in young athletes. Would be cool to see this talked about more too. 👍

[yoditan]

I was wondering about this a couple of months ago when I saw crazy numbers on the amount of women that was suffering from ACL injuries. A lot of women will miss the World Cup because of knee injuries.