Sport 'must do better' as research into women's ACL injuries and kit 'disparate and slow'
A new report has highlighted how a male focused world of sport and exercise can lead to injuries for women
Sport's response to women suffering a higher number of anterior cruciate ligament injuries than men in professional football has been slammed as "disparate and slow", by a committee of MPs.
England stars Leah Williamson and Beth Mead have both recently been sidelined for months after suffering an ACL injury.
The women’s game has seen a spike in this career-threatening injury, and nobody can put their finger on why female footballers are up to eight times more likely to suffer the injury than men - or what makes them more susceptible.
A report by the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) found a "systemic gender inequality" in how sports research is conducted and how this has affected participation, performance and spurred more injuries in women's sport.
The report calls for better female-specific clothing, footwear and equipment.
It also spoke about the disparity in research of men and women in sport - only 6% of research studies were conducted by women using all female participants.
In contrast, 31% of studies were conducted entirely by men using all male participants.
"Scrutiny of the ongoing anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury issue in women’s football has shown that there is systemic gender inequality in sports and exercise research, which is still overwhelmingly conducted by men, looking at issues affecting men," the report said.
"The sports science sector’s response to the ACL issue has been disparate and slow.
"We have no doubt that a health issue of similar magnitude affecting elite male footballers would have received a faster, more thorough, and better coordinated response."
'Ill-fitting' football boots and ACL injuries
The WEC report pointed to specific examples of football boot design as an example of inequality between men and women in sport.
"While female footballers in the UK have enjoyed great success at club and national level, they have done so wearing ill-fitting footwear," the report said.
"Few football boots designed for women are available, and those that do exist are rarely stocked or promoted by the UK’s leading high street sports retailers."
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Knee surgeon Andy Williams, has operated on hundreds of sports stars including Virgil Van Dijk, John Terry, Andrew Flintoff, and England’s Euros match-winner Chloe Kelly, among others.
He believes a combination of many factors - from women’s physiology, their menstrual cycle, the pitches they train on to an unrelenting fixture list - may contribute to their vulnerability.
Speaking to ITV News last year, he said: "Traditionally, female athletes were chosen quite late in their development physically, and it was just good enough to be skillful to get selected," he said.
“There's no doubt if you play when you're tired and fatigued, the door is more open for a new injury. And the intensity they play at is increasing, it really is a very high level.”
Thoughts that were echoed in the report.
What is the government planning to do about ACL injuries?
The WEC recommended the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Education (DfE) should convene a taskforce to also include representatives from elite sport funding body UK Sport, the UK Sports Institute, women’s health and fitness experts, sport and exercise research institutes and the UK divisions of leading sportswear brands.
A DCMS spokesperson said: “Later this month, the government will establish a Board of Women’s Sport to share best practices and research across women’s sport, including on issues such as ACL injuries.
“We are supporting women’s sport at every opportunity, from ensuring girls’ equal access to sport in school to investing £325million in grassroots football and multi-sport facilities across the UK by 2025.
“In December, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer supported the recommendations from Karen Carney MBE’s review of women’s football in full, including holding others to account for action on player welfare.”
'Drastic' improvement needed in schools
Another key takeaway from the report was on how girls' participation and enjoyment of sports in schools is being hobbled by teaching on girls' health and physiology.
Tuesday’s report called for a “drastic” improvement in how schools teach girls’ health and physiology, including the menstrual cycle and periods in the context of sport and physical exercise.
The report found “overwhelming evidence” that sports kit can have a “devastating impact” on girls’ confidence to participate in and enjoy school sports, and said focus needed to be on the enjoyment girls derive from sport, not solely on increasing participation.
The report also called for mandatory qualifications for coaches to ensure they are fully educated about female health.
It highlighted “deplorable” instances of harmful coaching practices such as public weighing, fat-shaming and bullying in swimming and sport more widely which had “damaged trust” in sports governing bodies.
A sector-wide working group should be established to ensure equal access to maternity pay and leave, and how pregnant women and mothers are supported, the report said.
It also called for the government’s ‘Get Active’ strategy to be updated to include an analysis of the barriers to participation faced by women in midlife, including perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms.
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