I start this piece by stating the obvious – that ACL ruptures within the women’s footballing world are a devastating injury for both player and club, and not an injury that you would wish on anyone. Arsenal Women’s 2022-23 season headlines were dominated by ACL injuries, and our Gunners are still not without issue even now.
Beth Mead & Vivianne Miedema – Arsenal’s top goal-scorers and assisters – suffered ACL ruptures in November & December 2022, and only started returning to the pitch for Arsenal in the weeks leading up to the winter break, slowly increasing their playing time. Miedema is the all-time top goalscorer in the Women’s Super League (78) and, between them, Mead & Miedema scored 66% of all Arsenal goals – to say this impacted Arsenal Women’s performance in the 2022-23 season is a huge understatement.
Matilda’s captain Sam Kerr is a prolific goalscorer for Chelsea, scoring 58 goals in the WSL for The Blues since her arrival in 2019. Sam Kerr has suffered an ACL injury while on a training camp in Morocco with Chelsea this weekend, will be absolutely devastating for Sam but also for Emma Hayes and the Chelsea Women squad as a whole. We, of course, wish Sam Kerr all the very best on her long road to recovery.
But the key question for us Gooners has to be:
- How much will Chelsea miss their star striker in their hopes of winning a 5th consecutive WSL title?
- And, with the return of Mead & Miedema, as well as a raft of new summer recruits, just how much will Arsenal Women’s chances of their first WSL title since 2019 be boosted?
Arsenal have shone a bright light on ACL injuries by releasing the Step by Step documentary series recently, which focuses on Mead & Miedema’s progress and ultimate recovery.
“It felt important to share our journey,” Mead told SkySports “There’s been quite a pandemic of this specific injury so we owed it to the next generation to try and figure out a better solution, a better plan that could minimise the risk of this nasty injury.”
Hopefully research into this horrible injury will help to protect future female footballers. Arsenal still await the return of Lionesses captain Leah Williamson & defender Laura Wienroither after they suffered ACL ruptures in April & May 2023. Our Gunners also have Teyah Goldie & GK Kaylan Marckese rehabilitating from ACL injuries.
Do you think Arsenal Women’s chances of lifting the WSL title this season just got a little tiny bit more hopeful Gooners?
COYGW!
Michelle Maxwell
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