Beth Mead’s long-term knee injury may have been brought on by “player loading” by way of fixture scheduling, in accordance to Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall.
The England star injured her anterior cruciate ligament late on in Arsenal’s 3-2 defeat to Manchester United final weekend, leaving the ahead in a race in opposition to time to be match for the World Cup in eight months time.
Mead is about to be out for an “extended period” and can go to a surgeon within the coming days to uncover the total extent of her injury.
And after Chelsea Women’s manager Emma Hayes criticised the fixture scheduling after shedding Pernille Harder to a long-term injury, Arsenal boss Eidevall has used the identical line of argument while evaluating Mead’s setback.
Speaking forward of Arsenal’s Champions League match away at Juventus this midweek, Eidevall stated: “When you see the quantity of accidents, the schedule of video games, particularly for gamers enjoying tournaments, it would not assist the injury scenario.
“Player loading and fatigue is clearly one thing that we always monitor and we’re involved about. If that might have been an element, that might have been apparent for us main up to that recreation, then we would not have performed her. But then it nonetheless can occur so it is troublesome, in fact.
“The team and people in and around the club have been very supportive and I hope Beth can feel that we all care for her and do the best for her in a tough time like this.”
Mead has performed 35 matches for membership and nation this calendar yr, however 18 of these video games have been for England as they went all the best way to successful the European Championships in the summertime, alongside qualifying for subsequent yr’s World Cup and enjoying worldwide friendlies.
Why are there so many ACL accidents in soccer?
News of Mead’s injury comes lower than every week after Sky Sports aired a function on Inside the WSL that confirmed feminine footballers are up to six occasions extra possible to undergo an ACL injury than their male counterparts.
West Ham’s Jessica Ziu, Aston Villa’s Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah and Tottenham duo Kyah Simon and Ellie Brazil are simply among the gamers to be dominated out this season alone.
The problem additionally got here to the fore throughout the summer time’s European Championships. Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas missed the event after rupturing her ACL simply days earlier than Spain’s opening recreation. Simone Magill additionally picked up the identical injury in Northern Ireland’s opening recreation of the event in opposition to Norway, simply days after signing for Aston Villa.
France striker Marie-Antoinette Katoto additionally limped off of their second group recreation in opposition to Belgium, having additionally ruptured her ACL. She had been one of many favourites to win the Euro 2022 Golden Boot.
Hayes: ‘Outrageous’ gamers are put in such positions
Speaking earlier than information broke of Mead’s injury, Chelsea manager Hayes stated participant welfare wanted , including that it’s “time to start putting players first”.
Erin Cuthbert has confronted a busy run with membership and nation, whereas Chelsea have confirmed midfielder Harder will be out for “a significant period” after present process surgical procedure for a hamstring injury suffered on worldwide obligation with Denmark.
“I’ve made it clear that player welfare needs looking at for the players,” Hayes stated. “I mean Erin Cuthbert went away with Scotland, played on Saturday and they played her again less than 48 hours later on a Monday. I think it’s outrageous that players are put in these positions.
“Yes, there has to be an international calendar and yes I know there are going to be changes so that they can perhaps be with international [teams] for longer periods and then with their club for longer periods, because it’s really the travel and the in between which cause a lot of problems, I would say.
“For somebody like Pernille she all the time needs to do every part, and it is not the fault of anyone generally with these accidents. They come for a lot of completely different causes.
“But I certainly feel players playing in World Cups, European Championships, being given two weeks’ rest in between seasons is unacceptable for them, forget clubs players and countries, we need to start putting the players first.”
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