Arsenal Women’s list of injuries just keeps growing – 43% of players injured.. by Michelle
Arsenal Women’s season has been marred with injuries, making it all the more surprising that they have managed to win the Conti Cup, stay in contention in the WSL title race, and reach the semi-finals of the UEFA Women’s Champions League this season.
When you look at the number of injured Arsenal players, and therefore available squad that Jonas Eidevall has available to draw on for the last 4 WSL games of the season, it really is quite unbelievable, with 43% of the Arsenal Women first-team squad unavailable. For the purposes of this analysis Arsenal goalkeepers are not included as, though there are 3 uninjured goalkeepers, they are not available elsewhere on the pitch..
4 of 8 defenders injured (50% injured)
1 of 5 midfielders injured (20% injured)
4 of 8 forwards injured (50% injured)
9 of 21 players injured (43% injured)
Arsenal Women Defenders
18 year old Teyah Goldie suffered an ACL injury in March 2022 and has been on the bench for Arsenal recently but has yet to play. Leah Williamson & Laura Wienroither have suffered ACL injuries very recently and will be unavailable for the remainder of this season and at least the first half of next season. Steph Catley had to be substituted in Arsenal’s game against Leicester on Friday night – Catley had only recently returned to the pitch after recovering from a foot injury.
Arsenal Women Midfielders
Captain Kim Little is unavailable for the remainder of the season due to a knee injury.
Arsenal Women Forwards
Beth Mead & Vivianne Miedema have been out of action since November and December 2022 respectively, both having suffered season-ending ACL injuries. Caitlin Foord has been unavailable for a number of weeks, due to injury. Rather worryingly, Stina Blackstenius had to be subbed during the 2nd leg of the UWCL semi-final as she had a quad complaint – Blackstenius again had to be subbed during the Arsenal game against Leicester on Friday night and was seen with an ice-pack on her injury.
Laura Wienroither is now the fourth Arsenal player to rupture her ACL this season alongside Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema and Leah Williamson. In his pre-Leicester Presser Arsenal‘s head coach Jonas Eidevall said “It’s a tragedy for the player and for us as a team, so we’re very disappointed and sad with the news,”
After securing 3 vital WSL points against Leicester City last night, Arsenal still have 4 WSL games to play before the season-end. Also, to secure qualification for the Women’s Champions League next season, the MUST finish in the WSL Top 3 – our Gunners are currently in 4th position..
UPDATE added 7th May: Swedish international forward, Lina Hurtig, signed for Arsenal last summer and has spent the majority of that time out injured this season. Eidevall has confirmed that Lina Hurtig is, once again, unavailable for selection due to injury – this means Eidevall has a ‘choice’ of eleven first-team players, with 48% of the first-team squad injured..
Knowing our Gunners they will fight hard and relentlessly to the end of the season but, realistically, we’re asking an awful lot from a very few uninjured players aren’t we?
COYGW!
Michelle Maxwell
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Very interesting topic.
I have heard that Bayern Munich have had specialists study biological risk factors for serious injuries. Their conclusion should be that the menstrual cycle affects the risk of injury and that the probability of serious injuries.
From what I understand, the club has a monitoring system which means that players with an increased risk according to cycle receives less load during such periods.
Arsenal’s situation is so special that it should be analyzed in more detail.
I read that injuries could be down to periods.apparently,the levels of estrogen rise and fall several times during menstruation, estrogen affects everything from the heart, blood,bones,muscles….i am no expert but trying to regulate its levels could be one way to decrease the numbers of injuries??
I’ve just realized,is what I just wrote be considered as “controversial”?