Experts call for focus on risk factors to reduce ACL injuries in women's game

MANCHESTER, England :Breaking the cycle of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in women's football requires a shift in the conversation away from biological differences such as wide hips and hormonal fluctuations during menstruation, according to experts.

Instead, the focus should be on risk factors that can be controlled, they say.

Women's Euro 2025, which kicks off on Wednesday, will be without Swiss striker Ramona Bachmann who will miss the tournament in her home country after tearing her ACL less than three weeks ago, underscoring the devastation the knee injury can cause in the women's game.

While studies show women are up to eight times more susceptible to ACL tears than men, there is scant research on the injury in professional women's football.

"We want to move away from these kind of stereotypical views that women are just more susceptible to it because of the way that their bodies are," Alex Culvin, Head of Strategy and Research for Women's Football at global players' union FIFPRO, told Reuters.

"They can't take the high workload, all of these quite nonsensical, illogical, overly kind of feminized ways of looking at ACL injury.

"We really want to hone in on things that we can affect. We can't change women's physiologies but what we can change and what we can adapt and improve are the conditions in which ACL injuries occur."

Culvin, a lecturer at Leeds Beckett University, is part of Project ACL, a three-year study launched by FIFPRO, the Professional Footballers' Association, Nike and Leeds Beckett with the Women's Super League.

There is interest in expanding the study to other women's leagues around the world.

"Obviously you've got non-modifiable risk factors which are predominantly physiological but you've