The World Cup will be played in Australia and New Zealand during the months of July and August

The timely recovery of Spain’s Alexia Putellas opens the door to the Women’s World Cup for the best player on the planet, but several top athletes will not be able to travel to Australia and New Zealand due to a ” scourge” of knee injuries that have raised questions.

Putellas, 29, missed last year’s Euros in England with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

The Barcelona player was out for nine months but that didn’t stop her from retaining her Ballon d’Or and FIFA’s Best Women’s Player award before returning to action in April.

Putellas was part of Barca’s recent Women’s Champions League triumph and is expected to arrive fully fit for the World Cup. But she is one of the lucky ones.

Reigning champions USA will be without Mallory Swanson, who tore the patellar tendon in her left knee, while midfielder Catarina Macario, who tore her anterior cruciate ligament, will also be unable to play. recover in time.

Reigning champions England will be without striker Beth Mead and captain Leah Williamson, both of whom have also recovered from serious knee injuries.

Vivianne Miedema, the Netherlands’ top scorer, has also been out since December with the same knee injury.

France’s ambitions have been shaken by the loss of Delphine Cascarino, the best player in the French league last season, to a partial tear in the knee ligaments. And prolific striker Marie-Antoinette Katoto was left out after missing the entire season with another knee injury.

And the Canadian Olympic champions will not be able to count on Janine Beckie, former Manchester City player and currently Portland Thorns.

Several factors explain the injuries

The Women’s World Cup loses some of its luster without these players, as this proliferation of injuries has sparked an internal debate over their cause.

“It’s an injury that can depend on a lot of things,” Putellas explained in an interview with FIFPro.

“Relatively recently, women started to turn professional in this sport and there was really almost no time to do this type of study and learn a bit more about the body of a footballer,” he adds. -he.

But the women weren’t suddenly vulnerable to serious knee injuries.

“The fact that women are more at risk than men when playing football has long been known,” Gordon Mackay, a Scottish knee surgeon, told AFP.

“It’s multifactorial, but there are a lot of things that contribute to risk factors,” he says, citing the need to train on suitable surfaces, as well as having cleats designed specifically for women.

Mackay calculated that the incidence of cruciate ligament tears in female soccer players was “four to six times higher” than in their male counterparts, indicating that the shape of the pelvis was another deciding factor.

Hormonal changes due to the menstrual cycle have also been frequently mentioned as one of the causes.

Thus, the strategy is based more on prevention. A recent study by researchers in England suggests that kits, balls and cleats should be designed specifically for women to increase their safety.

Sportswear giant Adidas, a leading kit supplier for World Cup teams, says it is taking the issue “incredibly seriously”. The brand assures AFP that its products are made for women, “from the idea to the tests”.

The pain of being left out

This Women’s World Cup will be the first to feature 32 teams, a testament to the continued growth of women’s football in recent years. For the players themselves, the physical pain of the injury is added to the moral pain of not being able to participate in the event.

“It’s hard to see all the excitement around the tournament,” Beckie admitted to Canadian radio TSN 690.

“I’m very excited about the tournament and all the players who have this platform as a showcase to showcase their talent, but at the same time it’s hard to admit that I won’t be there,” she concludes.

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