Women's World Cup: Vivianne Miedema calls for fewer games and more medical help to tackle ACL crisis
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Published 19/07/2023 at 13:10 GMT+1
Women's football has seen many serious knee injuries in recent months and Arsenal stars Vivianne Miedema and Beth Mead are among several who will miss the Women's World Cup because of them. Miedema believes too much is being asked of players and called on FIFA to reduce the workload, as well as calling for increased investment in medical teams. She also warned of more injuries to come.
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Arsenal and Netherlands star Vivianne Miedema has called for a change to the women’s football calendar and more investment in medical teams to slow the spiralling number of serious knee injuries.
The women’s game has been especially plagued by anterior cruciate ligament problems in recent seasons and it has been a big talking point leading up to the Women’s World Cup this month.
Miedema is one of several high-profile players who will miss the tournament after suffering from the injury, another being her Gunners team-mate and partner, England international Beth Mead.
“The biggest reason [for the injury] for me, and for Beth as well, is the increase in minutes,” Miedema told CNN.
“If you look at the calendar we’ve got, we used to play 30/35 games a season and now we’ve got 60.
“That is difficult for a player. Especially if you don’t have better facilities around you or a better medical team or more medical staff. That’s something that all clubs should improve right now.”
Studies have found that female athletes are, biologically, between three to six times more likely than their male counterparts to suffer an ACL injury.
And Miedema, a 2017 European champion and World Cup runner-up in 2019, was in no doubt when asked if the issue would be treated differently were it as prominent in the men’s game.
“Absolutely. I think from clubs themselves, from UEFA, associations, everyone would jump straight on it. Imagine having 40 ACLs at Man City this season, there would be a massive thing about it,” she said.
“I do also think because the women’s game has grown it is more visible, people are putting more attention to it. But I hope it’s not just attention, I hope it’s in the end a financial injection as well and that all of us will benefit from it.
“We need to spend in research. but for me what clubs and national teams should be doing right now is spending directly into medical teams.
“Research will give solutions in five or six years’ time, whereas at least a financial change or change in your medical team might give us a solution right now.”
She added: “I don’t think football understands athletes. I don’t think they understand men’s football either.
“I don’t think they understand how much physical and mental impact the game has on players and that sometimes it’s about protection of players instead of getting the money in or making it entertainment. In the end, we’re all people.”
The 115-cap Netherlands international believes that the first step that needs to be taken is to give footballers more time off during the season for rest and recovery.
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Vivianne Miedema
Image credit: Getty Images
The football calendar has become more stacked than ever and the various domestic, international and continental commitments required of players have taken their toll, according to Miedema.
“For FIFA, the biggest thing is, look at is your calendar. We’ve got a World Cup that is starting mid-July, ending mid-August. We then have European qualifiers mid-September already, and before that we’ve got Champions League qualifiers,” she said.
“So where are the players going to get their rest? If you look at a normal day-to-day job, you get weeks off, you get holidays that you need to take. I’ve probably only had 10 days last season. If you look at the impact it has on your body, it’s just not enough.
“FIFA needs to come up with a solution and say we need to come up with a proper holiday before the end of the season and after a tournament, because they’ve not. We’re going to end up having way more ACL and other injuries right now.
“It’s not something that only influences us in the UK, you see it everywhere right now. You’ll probably see a couple happen at the World Cup.”
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