This European Championship has reawakened a footballer's worst nightmare: the cruciate knee ligament injury. Alexia Putellas has been the most notorious case, but not the only one. The azulgrana was injured in England during a training session three days before Spain's debut in the tournament, but Simone Magill (Northern Ireland) and one of the most promising forwards on the continent, Frenchwoman Marie-Antoinette Katoto, have also fallen .
It has long been known that injuries of this type affect women much more than men, but when Barça published Alexia's medical report with an estimated recovery period of between 10 and 12 months, it caused such a stir that it had to eliminate the terms of the communication in a subsequent rectification. Although there are plenty of medical reasons that guarantee that this is the time that an athlete needs to recover with guarantees from a crusader injury. "We shouldn't be surprised at these recovery times," says Dr. Eva Ferrer, from the Unitat de Medicina de l'Esport at the Hospital Clínic-Sant Joan de Déu and doctor of the Barcelona women's first team until last season.
“People raise their hands to their heads now, but four years ago this was already being said for the child and adolescent population. It is nothing new that has been invented because they are women. There was already a medical reason for it. The age, the type of intervention, the needs of the sport... there are many particularities that affect recovery”, warns Ferrer. The doctor refers to a consensus of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of 2018 in which "it is recommended that any athlete who returns to a pivotal sport, such as basketball, soccer or handball, delay the return to the competition up to twelve months, because more time is needed at a biological level and for adaptation of the organism for this reconstruction”.
Ferrer understands that the case of the Ballon d'Or has had much more impact, but he points out that this trend is not new: “Now everything with Alexia has become more mediatic, but for years the deadlines have been lengthening for women. It is not an issue that it is now because it is Alexia, but that the scientific community is already seeing that the nine months, which is the time that was previously anticipated, are falling short”.
This is mainly due to one reason: “The risk of ‘reinjury’ in women is statistically much higher than in men and it is being studied to find out why this happens. It is probably because the same factors continue to exist that make this injury affect women more, because the anatomy of the player remains the same and her hormones too”. For this reason, the doctor considers it vital that during the months of recovery all those factors that can increase the risk of re-injury be focused on: “You have to make sure that you have strong stabilizing muscles in your knee so that when you go back into the field of play does not have the sensation of instability on this knee ”.
Without losing sight of the psychological part in this hard process: “In parallel to the physical work, there is a great deal of mental support because there is more risk of 'reinjury' if there is no security. The player does not have to be afraid of being injured again. This is very easy to say, but not so easy to carry out, ”she maintains. Virginia Torrecilla, an Atlético player and former Barça player, explained that after finding out about Alexia's serious injury, she called her to comfort her and says that the Ballon d'Or winner asked her: "Will I be the same again?"
A question for which Eva Ferrer has the answer: “Despite being a very difficult few months for the athlete, she has the opportunity to come back even stronger. If she had weaker muscles, she has a year to work on it. During the season there are many things that she cannot do because she does not have time with the competitive demands, during this process, she can focus on more concrete things and come out stronger from the injury”.
Ferrer warns that it cannot be personalized, that each case is different, but he does state that the 6-9 month terms “are a thing of the past”. “You have to start normalizing it so that the professionals themselves understand that they are going down this path for their own interest,” she concludes.
