Data could help solve ACL crisis in women's game, says software firm

Vast amounts of data generated in professional sports will be used to try to stem the number of serious knee injuries suffered by female soccer players, Stephen Smith, CEO of sports software company Kitman Labs, has told Reuters.

The 2023 Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand was a huge success, but it was robbed of some of its star players after big names such as Dutch striker Vivianne Miedema, England attacker Beth Mead and a host of others missed out due to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries.

Smith's firm is partnering with a number of teams and leagues, among them reigning National Women's Soccer League champions NY/NJ Gotham FC, in an effort to find solutions to help players avoid such injuries.

"What we're really excited about is that we're now working alongside a couple of female-based leagues and teams globally to start collecting that data and understand what it means," Smith told Reuters.

"(We want to) couple the game information, alongside the healthcare information and the information in relation to things like menstrual cycle, so that we can better understand the cause and effect. Then we can help these clubs and leagues to learn about how to better manage the female athlete."

Working as a senior injury rehabilitation and conditioning coach with Leinster Rugby in his native Ireland, Smith noticed that the medical, strength and conditioning and performance departments all operated independently, generating vast amounts of data about players, but not sharing it effectively with one another.

"The idea was to be able to take all of this information, pull it into one place, and give teams the ability to create that 360-degree view of the reality of their athletes and to make way better decisions that