Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42439882›Full record

ArticleKnee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA2026

Mechanisms and situational patterns of anterior cruciate ligament injuries in professional women's football (soccer): A systematic video analysis across 25 leagues (2022-2024).

Wyatt Hampstead, Ric Lovell, Matthew Whalan, Lionel Chia, Joshua Bonney, Bradley Wakefield, Vanessa Crespin, Evangelos Pappas

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Article in Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Wyatt HampsteadSchool of Medical and Indigenous Health Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9720-7616
Ric LovellSchool of Medical and Indigenous Health Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5859-0267
Matthew WhalanSchool of Medical and Indigenous Health Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1532-7877
Lionel ChiaCleveland Guardians Baseball Co, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3164-8809
Joshua BonneyPREP Health & Performance, Fairy Meadow, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0004-5760-8591
Bradley WakefieldSchool of Mathematics and Applied Statistics, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6691-162X
Vanessa CrespinIndependent Researcher and Data Analyst.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4028-2549
Evangelos PappasSchool of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8340-0303

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposesTo identify and describe the biomechanical characteristics and football-specific contextual factors associated with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in professional women's football.

methodsA media-based prospective cross-sectional study identified 247 ACL injuries across international matches and 25 national women's leagues (tiers 3-5) between 2022 and 2024 using a validated media-based surveillance approach. Video footage was available for 127 injuries and analysed by three reviewers using Quality Appraisal for Sports Injury Video Analysis Study (QA-SIVA) informed protocols and frame-by-frame analysis. Situational variables included player action (e.g., pressing, tackling, landing, kicking), contact mechanism, match status, positional role, playing surface, competition, pitch location and time of injury.

resultsMost injuries (67%) occurred within the first 45 min and during defensive play (65%). Mechanisms were non-contact (49%), indirect contact (41%) and direct contact (10%). Frequent scenarios included pressing/tackling (53%), being tackled (15%), regaining balance after kicking (7%) and landing from a jump (5%). Among the biomechanical subsample (57 frontal/transverse and 46 sagittal cases), commonly observed patterns during pressing or tackling included ~50° hip flexion, ~25° knee flexion, a neutral trunk position (~0°), hip abduction (66%) and knee valgus (54%).

conclusionsACL injuries in professional women's football frequently occurred during defensive actions early in matches. Within the biomechanical subsample, these injuries commonly involved limited lower-limb flexion and valgus knee alignment, although findings should be interpreted cautiously due to the limited sample size. Together, these findings provide descriptive insight into common injury scenarios in professional women's football and may help inform future prevention strategies and targeted biomechanical research. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: N/A.

Indexed as

Anterior Cruciate Ligament InjuriesAthletic InjuriesSoccerAdultBiomechanical PhenomenaCross-Sectional StudiesFemaleHumansProspective StudiesVideo RecordingACLbiomechanicsfatiguevideo analysiswomen's football

Identifiers

PMID42439882
PMCPMC13502420

What Socratic holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.