Arsenal Women Step by Step Ep2 ‘There’s no people I’d rather go through this with’
Arsenal Women have released their second episode in the short documentary series of the struggles our women went through last season with ACL injuries. In what for me has been a really enlightening two episodes about how hard life can be going through this type of injury for footballers, the mental and the physical struggles of getting through it and how well the team comes together to support those who are struggling with these types of injuries.
The episode started off with yet another two names added to Arsenal Women’s ACL injury list with Laura Wienroither and Leah Williamson having the same injury within a very short time of each other. Viv and Beth had offered for Laura to move in with the two of them to try make the process easier for her and so all of them had each other’s support through what seems like a very difficult time for all of them.
Something that really stood out to me in this episode was the camaraderie of the team and the support that everyone showed to their teammates. ACL injuries are not only hard on you physically but mentally also and in this episode, they looked like they wanted to highlight that and the struggles they go through on a daily basis while trying to recover. Although it must have been a really hard time for all of them, with lots of lows and not that many highs, it seems to have brought the squad closer and highlighted the amount of care and support from them and the club.
After the first episode showed that Beth had made a huge step in her recovery and was back on the grass, the attention was put on Viv and her progress in getting back to full strength, with her getting on the zero gravity machine that I’m sure a lot of Arsenal Women fans remember when it was first posted, and how much of a relief it was for Viv and the girls around her to see her making that next huge step forward in her recovery.
They also sat down and discussed what they could do to try and help change and prevent these types of injures that are becoming more and more common and a massive concern in women’s football. Using a negative situation to become a positive and use their platform to create change in the game and hopefully push forward research into why women athletes continue to get these injuries so often. At the moment there’s ACL injuries all over the WSL and it seems to be getting worse and worse.
When you think about it though, women’s football at this level hasn’t had the same type of studies and such that the men’s game has because professional women’s football hasn’t been around as long and you can only assume that, that has something to do with it. I think I almost enjoyed the second episode as much as the first and for me, what they’re doing is so important for the future of women’s football.
If you haven’t yet, I recommend going and giving both episodes a watch.
What’s your thoughts on episode two Gooners?
Daisy Mae
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