Women’s World Cup 2023: Some of the game’s top players are absent. And it’s because of the same injury issue
Simone Magill arrived at the Women’s Euros with Northern Ireland full of hope. Here she was, representing her tiny nation in one of world soccer'sbiggest tournaments.
But during the team’s opening match against Norway disaster struck. Magill went down in agony and Northern Ireland fans held their breaths. She had suffered a dreaded anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.
“There were a million thoughts going through my head when it happened. I was thinking about how long I’d be out for, how long the recovery would take, about needing surgery, and there were lots of tears.”
Magill wasn’t the only player to have her tournament ruined by the devastating knee injury. Fast-forward to the upcoming Women’s World Cup, which starts on July 20 in Australia and New Zealand, and a host of the game’s best players will also be absent because of an injury which appears to be endemic in the women’s game.
England captain Leah Williamson, the Netherlands’ all-time leading women’s scorer Vivianne Miedema and England’s Euro 2022 top scorer Beth Mead will all miss the biggest international competition in the women’s game.
Cat Macario, a rising star for the US Women’s National Team (USWNT), is also out, as is Germany’s Giulia Gwinn, named the Best Young Player at the 2019 Women’s World Cup, and Switzerland’s teenage midfielder Iman Beney-ruled out a day after being called up to the national team.
During the 2022/23 season, so many female soccer players across Europe’s top leagues suffered ACL injuries that an entire starting XI could be made up of those individuals. But why are so many female soccer players suffering from the same injury?
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