MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) -Children who fail to master basic physical skills such as running and jumping at an early age face a significantly higher risk of severe knee injuries later in life, according to new research from Coventry University.
The study warns that girls are particularly vulnerable, a finding that resonates in women’s football with England striker Michelle Agyemang becoming the latest of dozens of high-profile female players to suffer a season-ending ACL injury.
Women are up to eight times more likely to suffer the injury than their male counterparts, studies have shown.
The research, which assessed 105 grassroots footballers aged 13 to 16, found those with poor functional movement skills (FMS) — including running, hopping, jumping, skipping and kicking — were far more likely to exhibit faulty landing mechanics — the ability to land in the best way to absorb shock in the knees.
Girls scored worse than boys, amplifying their risk as they progress into competitive sport.
“The link between FMS and injury risk is much stronger in girls,” said Mike Duncan, Director of Coventry University’s Research Centre for Physical Activity, Sport and Exercise Sciences.
“People think PE will sort it out but PE in many primary schools is taken by the class teacher who isn’t specifically trained in primary PE, and they are also squeezed by time constraints, while grassroots sports coaches aren’t generally trained in embedding FMS into their sessions.
“When they move into football training with more complex drills, they can struggle to do them.”
The consequences of ACL injuries can be long-term.
They almost always require surgery and lengthy rehabilitation and increase the likelihood of a second ACL injury and arthritis in the repaired knee later in life.
While experts discount the notion of an epidemic in elite football, UEFA’s chief medical officer Zoran Bahtijarevic said numbers are rising at youth level as girls flock to football.
“We can expect an epidemic of ACL injuries below the radar, with the explosion of participation,” Bahtijarevic told Reuters. “The peak of injuries in women is between ages of 15-16 and 19.”
The general consensus is that the cause of ACL injuries is multi-faceted.
“Hormones also play a part as females get older – their hips grow wider than boys and so the force on their knees is different,” Duncan noted.
“Therefore, FMS when younger is even more important for girls than boys as when we are better at FMS our brains are better at adapting to situations where we might need to unexpectedly land a certain way when running or jumping, which then helps reduce the risk of injuries.”
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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