New studies have linked a lack of specialised equipment with female footballers being three times more likely than their male counterparts to suffer a debilitating injury to their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

ACL injuries have become a much more common part of football, but especially in the women’s game, where the Women’s Super League has experienced 28 such injuries this campaign, by comparison to the Premier League experiencing just four.

Star players like Vivienne Miedema, Sam Kerr and Leah Williamson have all been sidelined more months in recent years with these injuries, stunting the traction and growth not only of the players themselves, but of the whole league.

This is a well-versed topic for anyone following women’s football in recent years, but new research suggests the core reason for these injuries might be different than what we expected originally.

Previous studies have suggested that an increase in female ACL injuries could be down to an increased match-load, with top-level professionals competing in 20% more matches than they had done previously. Thus these ACL injuries have been treated as a teething problem of a growing sport.

But as that issue has filtered down to lower, often non-professional divisions, that hypothesis is beginning to be altered.

Last year’s study of over 3000 injuries across the second and third levels of American football has demonstrated that female footballers are nearly three times more likely to suffer such an injury.

The study also noted that 82% of the women involved experienced mild to severe discomfort with their boots, and previous research has demonstrated that just 20% of female players compete with boots specially made for female athletes.

The conical shaped studs that are commonplace in the men’s game are perfectly designed for maximum traction to support the power output of elite male athletes. When female athletes attempt to use the same equipment, the studs penetrate the turf but do not release quickly enough.

This ‘foot fixation,’ is detrimental to the physical health of any athlete, and logic dictates that wearing a type of shoe which is simply not made for your body.

Speaking to Dr Ella Tagliavini, founder of Elevate Performance Psychology and captain of Fulham Ladies, she is clear about what needs to change:

“We’re fortunate to be twinned with a Premier League club who can provide quite a lot of that equipment for us,” she said.

“But it’s a massive problem that comes from 60 years of little to no research and stagnation in the game, we’re still catching up.”

Having gone through an ACL injury herself, Tagliavini is well aware of the impact it can have on young players:

“The cost can be debilitating. I’m really lucky that the club has state of the art medical staff and I wasn’t paying for it myself,”

The most famous example of this was in 2024, when Ian Wright personally stepped in to fund part-time Stoke City Ladies defender Kayleigh McDonald’s treatment and rehab for an ACL injury, after she had started a GoFundMe to raise the £20,000 necessary.

The club eventually stepped in and reimbursed Wright, but Tagliavini is convinced more investment in preventative measures could create less likelihood of reoccurrence. 

“Just spending more on our welfare prior to the injury could make a huge difference,” she said.

“It’s so simple and, on a cynical level, could help grow the game quicker and save money.”

American top tier National Women’s Soccer League has joined the WSL as part of Project ACL, designed to increase the amount of sports science research into women, a statistic that currently sits at less than 10%.

The women’s game still has a long way to go before it can claim to be specialised, but this research could be a huge step forward in how injury prevention is treated across the game.