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On Monday, two days before their Allianz Arena game against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, Arsenal announced the devastating news that their centre-back Katie Reid had sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
The 19-year-old, who was pulled forward to lift the Champions League trophy in front of fans by the captain Leah Williamson at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium celebration in May, had a meteoric rise at the start to the season, partnering Steph Catley in place of the injured Williamson, starting many games ahead of the World Cup winner Laia Codina and double European Championship winner Lotte Wubben-Moy.
“It’s always horrible, especially for her,” the manager, Renée Slegers, said. “She started the season so well for us. With her age, how mature she has been, how she’s been in the group and how she has grown every single day, it is very disappointing for her. It’s very hard. She’s been with us in the last couple of days and surgery is planned. She will move forward from there. She said she will use this time to grow as a footballer, which says everything about Katie.”
Reid is the third Arsenal player to be sidelined with the long‑term knee injury this season. The goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger ruptured her ACL in training between Arsenal’s opening Champions League fixtures against Lyon and Benfica last month, and on 30 October it was announced that the forward Michelle Agyemang, who was on loan at Brighton, had sustained the brutal knee injury, having been taken off on a stretcher during England’s 3-0 defeat of Australia in Derby.
The prevalence of ACL injuries in women’s football is not new and is far from being an Arsenal problem. Liverpool similarly have three out with ACL injuries, Marie Höbinger and Sophie Román Haug both sustaining ACL injuries in October, joining the 18-year-old midfielder Zara Shaw who sustained the same injury in April. Chelsea (Kadeisha Buchanan and Brooke Aspin), Everton (Megan Finnigan and Aurora Galli), Manchester City (Mary Fowler and Mayzee Davies) and Tottenham (Ella Morris and Maite Oroz) all have two out apiece. Brighton have lost Agyemang, who has returned to her parent club Arsenal for treatment and rehab, but are also without Manuela Vanegas. Aston Villa’s Jill Baijings joined the ACL club at the end of September.
It would be wrong to sound fresh alarm bells or talk of an epidemic of ACL injuries in women’s football. The reality is that women’s football has been blighted by ACL issues for a long time. Arsenal’s opponents on Wednesday, Bayern Munich, are no strangers to just how devastating the injury can be, with the Germany midfielder Lena Oberdorf sustaining her second ACL injury on 20 October, having made just eight appearances following her return from her previous ACL injury two months before. Oberdorf’s tear came one month after fellow midfielder Sarah Zadrazil endured the same fate.
“The starting point is about as much awareness as possible on how we can prevent these injuries and I think everyone agrees with that,” said Slegers, who called time on her own playing career after an ACL injury. “I know the club is prominent in these processes on a wider scale.
“It’s hard because it’s one little moment and you’re out for nine to 12 months and it impacts a player’s career. We need to keep on doing research because the game is growing and changing so fast and we need to move with that change.”
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The goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar said: “Obviously the schedule gets busier, clubs and nations are asking more and more of us, and there’s probably somewhere a way of reducing the risk and I hope for everyone that we can find that.”
The comments of Slegers and Van Domselaar came after the Chelsea midfielder Keira Walsh spoke on the issue following Reid’s injury before Chelsea’s match against St Pölten. Walsh said that those “higher up do need to listen to what we’re saying as players” on the issue of overloading and underloading, with many feeling match scheduling does not take a holistic enough approach.
On Wednesday night, Arsenal and Bayern will be weaker because of their absentees. For Arsenal, the loss of Reid and Zinsberger for the long term, added to their short-term losses, is placated by a squad depth that means a strong starting XI can still be fielded. The problem, though, is that with the number of games mounting and fewer options to rotate the risk of further injury only increases.
