Large-scale Dutch research into cruciate ligament injuries in Women's footballers

There is going to be large-scale research in the Netherlands into the high number of cruciate ligament injuries in girls' and women's football. The University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) is going to follow around 6,000 women's youth footballers to see whether stress factors are influencing the high number of heavy injuries. Researcher Anne Benjaminse has "strong suspicions" that this is the case. They are going to do their research using money given to them by the European Football Association (UEFA).

Women's footballers are four to eight times more likely to suffer a torn anterior cruciate ligament than male players, according to Benjaminse, who is a medical scientist at the UMCG. This is around one woman per team that suffers this type of injury every season, with months-long recovery as a result.

Benjaminse suggested the study to the UEFA and was given financial support for it. Together with two or three others, the researcher will follow thousands of footballers from the ages of 12 to 21 during the next season. She is supported by the Dutch Football Association, the KNVB, during this.

A Swedish study among boys and girls playing football previously showed that stress factors influence the occurrence of all kinds of injuries. Benjaminse is the first person to research the effect that factors like worries about looks, lack of sleep, and loneliness have on ligament injuries among youth footballers. "Girls going through puberty are more sensitive to these types of stress factors than boys," Benjaminse said on the phone to ANP.

The Dutch women's team has been missing players Vivianne Miedema, Jill Roord, and Victoria Pelova lately, as they all suffered torn anterior cruciate ligaments. It will be a while until Roord and Pelova can return for Andries Jonker's side; Miedema is available again after a lengthy rehabilitation process.

More attention has been given to injuries recently. Extensive research among professional women's footballers was announced in England in April. Youth women's footballers tear their anterior cruciate ligaments more often than professional women's footballers.

Women are, in any case, more susceptible to the injury than men due to physical and hormonal factors, but possibly also due to stress factors. Benjaminse expects to produce the first results in more than a year.