There is often a question asked when it comes to specific injuries such as ACL related ones, do they affect men or women more? have their recovery processes really changed?
Anterior cruciate lligament (ACL) injuries occur when a hard force hits the side of your knee when your leg is slightly bent, this can happen from running, landing from a jump or turning.
ACL injuries have become more common with more than 20,000 known cases reported in the UK per year.
Laura Sears, Striker of Long Eaton United ladies FC suffered a ruptured ACL on December 15 2019 when Long Eaton faced Chesterfield FC Women in the semi final of the Derbyshire County Cup at the Proact Stadium.
Long Eaton who play their games in the National League Division 1 Midlands will be without the natural born goal scorer when they play Woodlands Ladies FC in the final.
Sears, who is mad about the sport of football spoke out on her injury and how she felt the processes of the recovery had changed.
“ My process of recovery has been slow, I got injured back in December and am awaiting my op, the NHS are pushed to the limit day in day out so my injury was pushed back and seen as non serious this meaning my op date has been longer.
“ I’m no expert however from say 10 years ago I may have been seen a lot quicker due to the NHS not being under so much pressure back then, 90% of professionals I spoke to stated that this type of injury does occur more in females.”
Sears who is set to be on the sidelines for up to a year and a half will be pushing herself to be fit and raring to go ready to put on her boots back on and get on that football pitch.
One question remained unanswered has technology changed surrounding the treatment and recovery of this injury?
Alan Smith, former England and Sheffield Wednesday physio spoke to me and said:
“ they haven’t really changed in terms of the surgical procedure however, the equipment and some rehabilitation stages have changed, for example the technology of CT slams, X-rays will have been made to be more reliable and more technical as the years passed”
The Injury is backed by science and local professionals that the injury is often more sustained by women and this answered my question women are more likely to suffer and ACL injury.
Football, basketball, skiing and rugby have all been named as the top risk sports for the injury to occur as all sports your knees are in use constantly.
There is a lot of medical measures out there for ACL injuries and physiotherapist are often booked up and are in high demand when it comes to treating this type of injury.
Your local GP or when you a treated at the hospital for the first time will point you in the right direction when needing physiotherapy however, some people prefer their own treatment and prefer to pay for their own services.
The NHS offer a lot of support and here is information on the subject more if needed:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/knee-ligament-surgery/recovery/
The only way is up 