FIFA will be funding an academic study at Kingston University to investigate whether there is a link between the menstrual cycle and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in women’s soccer, which are more prominent than in men’s soccer.
Some well-known women’s players recently affected by ACL injuries include Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead and Sam Kerr — who has been out of the Chelsea lineup for 15 months.
“We want to examine whether athletes may be more predisposed to injuries because of the functional changes in terms of their anatomy and physiology during the menstrual cycle,” said Simon Augustus, a senior lecturer in sport biomechanics. “We know hormones fluctuate during different phases of the cycle, but we don’t yet know how much of an influence that may have on the risk of injury.”
The goal of the study, which is part of the FIFA Research Scholarship program, is to reduce the risk of injury by adapting training to individual athlete’s needs. The year-long project will begin in June with Kingston University experts working with clubs in South West London, including Chelsea and Fulham. Athletes who take part in the study will regularly visit the campus to have blood and physical performance tests.
Researchers will analyze hormone concentrations in blood samples, particularly female-specific hormones such as estrogen and progesterone. Those hormones have been linked to increasing ligament laxity, which means joints being more flexible than normal, and a decrease in neuromuscular reaction times, which refers to the speed at which the nervous system receives a stimulus and initiate a muscular response.
The hormone concentrations will be cross-referenced with the player’s physical performance to determine if there is a correlation between ACL injury risk factors and where an athlete is in her menstrual cycle. This will also involve looking at the most common ways athletes injure their ACL.
The research team will be lead by PhD student Blake Rivers alongside Augustus, James Brouner and Michelle Richards, who are sports and exercise science experts at Kingston.
“We know some injuries are unavoidable, for example, if a player is involved in a bad tackle,” Augustus said. “But we’re attempting to help those individuals who injure their ACL outside of impact actions — those are the ones where we might have more chance to intervene and prevent them from taking place by utilizing strength training or tweaking technique.”
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