With the professionalization of women’s football, training, and match demands have significantly increased in recent years (Datson et al., 2014, 2017). The overall injury incidence is similar to male football, although the proportion of severe injuries has been shown to be higher in women’s football (Mufty et al., 2015; Roos et al., 2017) which is associated with significant costs (Gebert et al., 2020). Female football players are reported to have 21% more absence due to injury compared to men, primarily due to greater incidence of severe knee and ankle ligament injuries, with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries occurring 2–8 times more often in female soccer players (Larruskain et al., 2018; Lin et al., 2018).
University of Lincoln, College of Social Science
Dan Martin, University of Lincoln, School of Sport and Exercise Science
Kate Timmins, University of Lincoln, School of Sport and Exercise Science
Charlotte Cowie, The Football Association
Jon Alty, The Football Association
Ritan Mehta, The Football Association
Alicia Tang, The Football Association
Ian Varley, Nottingham Trent University, Department of Sport and Exercise Science