The World Cup is missing a number of top stars.
Vivianne Miedema has to miss the World Championships. PDO
The soccer World Cup in Australia and New Zealand will once again bring together the world’s best female players.
Or at least that’s what should happen.
Many of the brightest names in the sport have to miss the games again due to injuries. The craziest thing is they all seem to be suffering from the same injury. The anterior cruciate ligament of their knee has ruptured.
Warriors of misfortune include, among others, attacking stars Beth Mead (England), Vivianne Miedema (Netherlands) and Marie-Antoinette Katoto (France). Also the England captain by Leah Williamson and Switzerland’s 16-year-old super promise Iman Beney race trips will be missed.
One of the biggest disappointments of last summer’s European Championships was the injury of Ballon D’Or winner Alexia Putellas just days before the start of the tournament. Northern Ireland Simone Magill the anterior cruciate ligament, on the other hand, released itself immediately in the opening game of the Games.
The list could go on forever.
Women are known to be up to six times more prone to ACL injuries than men, the Brit Sky Sports write. Doctor by Emma Ross the statistics told can easily be found to be correct.
Reason in menstruation?
Beth Mead (left) and Vivianne Miedema posed in December leaning on crutches. PDO
Forward of the Finnish national football team Linda Sällström is concerned about an epidemic ravaging the species.
– The last time the women’s Ballon d’Or list was published, a quarter of the candidates were at the same time with a knee injury, torn anterior cruciate ligament. It does mean something, says Sällström.
– There is a problem somewhere when there are so many serious injuries that keep a player off the field for almost a year. We should look at what causes this, so that it can be addressed.
Women’s menstrual cycle and hormonal balance have been studied to affect the body’s physiology and biomechanics.
According to Sky Sports, for example, high estrogen levels can have an effect on joint balance. Estrogen can interfere with the collagens in the joints and thus make the joints looser.
Another reason for injuries can be found in women’s feet, which are different than men’s. If women wear ill-fitting soccer shoes, it can lead to knee problems. Shoe manufacturers are expected to invest more in women’s product ranges as well.
Marie-Antoinette Katoto is one of the victims of knee injuries. PDO
Sällström fears that the speed of the game and the increase in intensity will also lead to an increase in injuries.
Not only the players themselves suffer from it, but the sport as a whole. The World Cup is a good example of this.
– It’s sad for those players, but also for the whole event, says Sällström.
Image polishing
Another threat hovered over the World Cup in the winter, which, however, did not materialize.
The international football association Fifa envisioned Saudi Arabia’s tourism operator Visit Saudi to be the main sponsor of the tournament, but the plan received so much criticism that it finally rejected the idea.
Women’s rights are so few in Saudi Arabia that connecting the oil state as a partner in women’s competitions would have been a downright outrageous move.
Sällström was also horrified when he heard about Fifa’s plans.
– Of course I wasn’t jumping for joy. Sports washing would have been quite blatant in that situation, he recalls.
– It would be quite a bit of image polishing if a dictatorship like that, where all women don’t have rights, were to sponsor the Games. I don’t even know if women are allowed to play football there, or at least in what way and to what extent.
Linda Sällström criticizes Saudi Arabia’s sportswear. EPA / AOP
Sällström states that Fifa’s longing for Saudi money was unfortunately not surprising. An example of the same immorality was already seen on the men’s side when the World Cup was moved to Qatar.
– Trust in Fifa’s operations was already quite low. I hoped that something had been learned from the Qatar Games. Now that this incident came to light, I got the feeling that nothing has been realized there.
Last winter, Sällström boycotted the Qatar tournament and did not watch the games at all. Now, Fifa’s cooperation with Saudi Arabia could have led to the same outcome.
– It is possible that these games would have been boycotted, he announces.