FIFPRO, the Professional Footballers Association, Nike, and Leeds Beckett University are working together to research how to reduce Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries in women’s football and increase player availability.
They will collaborate with clubs and players in the FA Women’s Super League to understand their working conditions, find best practices, and offer solutions to decrease ACL injuries. Research shows that women are more likely to get ACL injuries than men, especially in women’s football without physical contact. Despite this, there is little knowledge on how to reduce these injuries in professional female footballers, as most research has focused on amateur players.
Project ACL will take the following steps
- A review of existing academic research related to professional women’s football, ACL injuries and existing injury reduction programs.
- A needs assessment of the multidisciplinary teams and structures of the 12 FA WSL clubs to better understand their resources and access to facilities.
- Real-time tracking of the workload, travel and ‘critical zone’ appearances of FA WSL players through the FIFPRO Player Workload Monitoring tool.
During the three-year project, the partners will turn the best techniques and academic findings into clear strategies to help clubs and players improve player availability in the FA WSL.
Project ACL will help English football and players, clubs, and competitions worldwide. FIFPRO and the project partners will share their findings with all football stakeholders, including FIFA and regional confederations.
The players have called for more research
Dr Alex Culvin, FIFPRO’s Head of Strategy and Research for Women’s Football, said: “The players have rightly called for more research into ACL injury, and Project ACL is a response to both their needs and those of the industry more broadly. What makes this project stand out is it focuses on players in professional women’s football, and benefits from the collaboration of a wide range of stakeholders coming together and collaborating.”
Maheta Molango, CEO of the Professional Footballers Association, said: “First and foremost, we view ACL injuries as being about the welfare of our members. As their union, it’s right that we take a proactive role in helping to improve understanding of the issue and ensuring that the care provided for players in the women’s game is focused on their unique needs as footballers. This project marks a significant step towards building player-generated insights to best protect its players from ACL injury.”
Dr. Stacey Emmonds, Reader in Sports Performance at Leeds Beckett University, said: “Most of the research to date on ACL injury has focused on single sex-based risk factors like the mechanics of female bodies. Our research will look at the bigger picture. To consider the gendered environmental factors that may influence injury risk in women’s professional football.”
Lucy Bronze’s take on ACL injuries
Bronze said: “It’s really important. We need to start fine-tuning the information that we’re putting out. There’s just so much talk and lot of wrong information that gets put out.
“There isn’t a quick fix to eradicating ACL injuries in women’s football. We need to do this finely-tuned research so that we can (pinpoint) the key factors and focus points. The players need to be more clear on the process of why it happens. What you can do to reduce the risk and not just changing your football boots or what socks you wear.
“It’s important the right information is being put out there, both for players and their support system, clubs, and for the game in general.”
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