UEFA highlights impact of research around female football injuries by UoG professor
Groundbreaking research by a University of Gloucestershire professor around injuries to female footballers that has had impact around the world, is being showcased by UEFA.
Professor Mark De Ste Croix’s study ‘Protect her knee: Exploring the role of football-specific fatigue on dynamic knee stability in female youth football players’ has been selected for inclusion in the UEFA Academy’s anniversary publication on the UEFA Research Grant Programme.
The publication is highlighting game-changing research funded by the UEFA Research Grant Programme over the past 15 years, choosing one project for each year. It describes Professor De Ste Croix’s 2012 study as moving “beyond observations and analysis to create actionable, career-preserving, life-changing interventions.”
The UEFA publication writes: “The recent rise of women’s football has been nothing short of meteoric, but it has come at a cost. Greater professionalisation, more matches and increased intensity are taking a significant physical toll.
“At the forefront of research in this area is Mark De Ste Croix, whose work is fundamentally changing how the game approaches the ‘dynamic knee stability’ and health of female youth players.”
A key aspect of Professor De Ste Croix’s research is its focus on female players going through puberty who might be at the highest risk of sustaining knee injuries, particularly to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), because of rapid growth and hormonal changes.
The research highlighted that fatigue significantly impairs the body’s ability to keep joints stable under pressure, such as when a player lands from a jump without bending their knees.
This finding has reinforced the need to integrate landing techniques into every training session, ensuring that young players develop the muscle memory to protect themselves even when most of their energy is spent.
Professor De Ste Croix’s research has led to the foundation of international safeguarding programmes that are changing the way the sport is addressing an increasingly critical issue at the heart of women’s game.
These initiatives include the Move Well, Be Strong initiative youth injury prevention programme for grassroot coaches and PE teachers, which shifted the focus from reactive treatment to a proactive culture of resilience.
The initiative has been expanded to other sports such as handball, netball, rugby and cricket, and rolled out across Europe, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia. More than 5,000 coaches and physical education teachers have been trained through the programme.
The UEFA publication adds: “It has been over a decade since the publication of the “Protect her knee” report, but the importance of its safeguarding mission – ensuring that the stars of tomorrow aren’t sidelined by the preventable injuries of today – has become no less important; in fact, with the incidence of ACL injuries among female elite players continuing to rise, it is more so.”
Professor De Ste Croix said: “Given the extensive research that UEFA have funded and conducted over the past 15 years, it’s great to see them showcasing our research around injury risk management in female youth football.
“We are proud of the impact that we have made as a research group in seeing a reduction in injury risk at grassroot-level and supporting research in women’s football, which has been greatly under-represented over the years.”
Picture: Professor Mark De Ste Croix (right)