Key result
Addressing environmental and sociocultural factors, alongside biological determinants, is required to understand and mitigate the high rate of ACL injuries in the women's Australian Football League.
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Highlights the need to address environmental and sociocultural factors, rather than just biological determinants, to mitigate ACL injuries in female Australian football players.
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries have been a rising concern in the early years of the women’s Australian Football League (AFLW) – eliciting headlines of a “knee crisis” surrounding the league. There has been a focus on female biology as the primary factor driving the high rate of ACL injuries in the AFLW. Emphasising Australian football as being dangerous for females due to their biology may be misrepresenting a root cause of the ACL injury problem, perpetuating gender stereotypes that can restrict physical development and participation of females in the sport. We propose that that a framework addressing environmental and sociocultural factors, along with biological determinants, is required to truly challenge the ACL injury problem in the AFLW. Sports science and medicine must therefore strive to understand the whole system of female Australian football, and question how to address inequities for the benefit of the athletes.
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Fox et al. (2020) conducted an editorial in Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries. Addressing environmental and sociocultural factors, alongside biological determinants, is required to understand and mitigate the high rate of ACL injuries in the women's Australian Football League.
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