Step by Step Ep3: ‘This is only the tip of the iceberg’
Arsenal Women today released their 3rd episode of the Step by Step short series and while our Gunners take a break until the new year, we Arsenal Women fans are getting treated to an inside look on not just the club but the struggle and journey of getting back from an ACL injury.
In this episode the focus is mainly around research and looking for a way to prevent such injuries from accruing so regularly in the women’s game. Not only that but the struggle around how hard it was for those injured to miss out on this year’s Women’s World Cup, highlighting the hardship of having to watch your teammates and country go to such a big event, that only happens every four years, without you, across the other side of the world, while you’re stuck in the club gym trying to recover and not think too much about the fact you’re missing out.
They shine a huge spotlight on the mental health of going through the injury itself and your mental health leading up to the injury and if that would affect the likelihood of picking up an injury. Both Viv and Beth saying that before their injuries they’d been dealing with a lot of stuff, maybe hadn’t slept as much as usual and both thought that being where they were mentally, might have contributed to why they were injured in the first place.
They sat down and got to talk to some researcher’s who have been looking into ACL injuries in women’s football specifically and a few of them highlighted the fact of how different men’s and women’s football is and the research into the science behind women’s football has only just begun. Men start in academy’s very young, while most professional women footballer’s you see only started around 18-years-old, leaving the women in a position where they haven’t had that strength and conditioning coaching since they were a kid and for me, I think that’s a huge part of it.
They talked about the importance of having things specifically made for women’s football, football boots and stuff like that are all made for men and so there are a lot of things revolving around men’s football – there’s more funding, more research and football feels like it’s still made to accommodate men, which needs to change.
Injuries come as a part of football and I think footballers know and accept this, but if we can do anything to prevent these types of injuries, especially ACLs in women’s football, then I think it needs to be done and fast. It’s hard to remember sometimes but professional women’s football at the level it’s at now, has never been this good and with quality and more games every year, the science needs to evolve with the game.
Hopefully Beth and Viv’s voice are as loud as I think, and they can change a negative situation into a positive for the next generation of young women who want to play football at a professional level.
What’s your thoughts on episode 3 Gooners?
Daisy Mae
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