Arsenal have confirmed that Leah Williamson ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament in Wednesday night’s defeat at Manchester United. Williamson’s leg twisted under little pressure and she immediately collapsed to the floor in pain.
It means Williamson will be out until 2024 and will miss the opportunity to captain England at this summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Leah is the third player in the squad to rupture her ACL after Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema ruptured theirs in the winter.
“Leah will now begin a period of rehabilitation and is set for an extended spell on the sidelines,” a statement from Arsenal read. “She will undergo surgery in due course.
“Everyone at Arsenal will be supporting Leah closely throughout the journey ahead and we would ask that her privacy is respected at this time.”
Everyone at Arseblog News wishes Leah the best of luck with her recovery.
I hate ACL.
Or to give it its full name, the “Arsenal Cruciate Ligament”
Feel compelled to write how gutted I feel for Leah. Come back stronger captain!
Hey, this is too much. I’m sure there should be something to prevent this. We can’t afford to lose great players to ACL at this rate. I know women are more prone to ACL injury due to wider hips. Isn’t there any training to prevent this, or at least lower the risk of it happening to three players in three months?
I wonder whether the physical argument is simplistic – I’ve not heard of it being a problem in other sports. At least as likely imo it’s the quality of the pitches.
its being asked to play every three days without adequate rest. if the footballing gods are going to tell us the players must perform every three days to make the broadcasters richer then perhaps squad sizes need to be enlarged to prevent these serious injuries.
Oh ffs
Have we done something to piss off the injury God’s this season? Losing so many of our best players one after the other 😧
Viv and Beth for half the season, Kim till next season, Leah not till next year.
Taken all that into account we have done pretty well this season!
Thought so. She knew it immediately herself.
This really sucks for her to miss the World Cup.
Guess it’s all on Pelova as the #8…
I assume McCabe will be the Captain now ?
Wishing you a speedy recovery, Leah. Cheers🙏🏾
Wishing you all the best for your recovery, Leah! Really terrible luck and timing. Thank you for working so hard and being so committed in games and I’m so sorry your season has ended in this way. Something has to be done about the rate of knee injuries in the women’s game, because it is ridiculous, not just for our club but for all the big clubs. UEFA or FIFA need to start a working group to look into causes and prevention, because this can’t go on. Football boots actually designed to support women’s feet (which are proportioned differently to… Read more »
I guess it feels to me like the scheduling isn’t the primary problem. The men play roughly the same amount, and they get injuries, but they tend to be muscular tweaks, not these catastrophic ACLs. The other things is that as you say, this isn’t just a Gunner problem. It happens to other teams, and the loss of this many stars has a meaningful impact on the attractiveness and finances of the women’s game, both WSL and international. If less people attend/watch matches because half of the stars are out for months, it has a significant financial impact. You’d think… Read more »
Feel terrible for Leah and the teams (England and Arsenal both). Seems as though Arsenal can’t catch a break with the major injuries this season.
And while I know ACL injuries are more common with women, this seems a major outlier. Makes me wonder if there’s been some kind of significant change in training or diet?
Oh dear! This ladies team have had it bad with injuries this season. Reminds me of the days of Rosicky, Diaby and Van Persie.
I wish them all speedy recovery. They’ll come back stronger.
Damn
once again, player welfare takes a back seat to the monetization of their talents- this could have been avoided if the schedules were more respectful of recovery times instead of pushing for more pointless cup competitions, more pointless international friendlies, more pointless travel, more scheduling changes to make advertisers and broadcasters happy.
Reading through some of the responses to this news in the press/media, especially as they begin to try and guess what Sarina Wiegman will do, pretty much confirms what I already thought – there are a lot of people out there, including some pretty experienced writers/commentators on women’s football, who really haven’t grasped exactly what it is that Leah W does on the pitch. I’m seeing a lot of ‘move Greenwood to LCB and give the armband to Bright (if fit)’ – it’s really not that straightforward, is it…
Absolutely spot on Martyn – Leah is a VERY effective contributor to the cause of her team, deceptively so, and her personality and natural leadership skills in addition to her playing skills, combine to make Leah the first class footballer.
In the long term, I really hope she stays with the club; Leah is also the perfect future Captain, though I also feel & hope that Kim has quite a few more years in her yet.
With Viv and Beth coming back too, the club may be on the up again next season.
A great player and ambassador for women’s football.
I hope a complete and speedy recovery for Leah.
I have never heard of a case where three members of the same time have ruptured their ACL in the same season. It hasn’t happened to other teams so further investigation is needed. When we add Kim Little to the list, our squad has been decimated this year!
You are correct, but we know from the start of this season the roster was too small, 20 players, three of them goalkeepers plus a injured Teya Goldie, 16 field players, all of them playing internationally, was too much, we the fans know it, the club know it, the reporters know it, we as a club need to be prepared from the beginning of the next season.
Aston Villa, Spurs and Lyon have all had three ACL ruptures in their squad simultaneously in the last year.
It is long overdue that the women’s game was played on proper well maintained pitches. Leigh Sports Village is home of Man United, their under 19 and under 23 teams plus rugby league team Leigh Leopards, amateur rugby league team Leigh East and athletics club Leigh Harriers. No wonder the pitch is in such an awful state. The pitch should be properly inspected before the match and if in doubt postpone it. I think that Arsenal actually have a case to sue United for the state of the pitch and potential loss of revenue. I wish Leah all the very… Read more »
Radio 4 news said that she caught her foot on the turf.
That’s the first time I’ve heard this explanation; has it been publicised anywhere else? We just can’t allow women’s matches to be played on sub-standard pitches (ridiculous to share facilities with rugby). And the Orient ground where we played Spurs was a disgrace.
Oh dear – that’s basically confirming what Jonas probably knew but knew he couldn’t specifically say.
Man, that really sucks.
The wsl shouldn’t train or play on plastic pitches, just like the men
Really crushing for her on a personal level. She’s fast becoming an icon in the game. Wishing her all the best for her recovery.
I’m no expert. But something seems to be decidedly out of whack with these injuries in the women’s game.
Are the right questions being asked? Is it happening in other women’s leagues? Is it pitch surfaces? Is it an increase in playing time?