Fear. Behind every injury, there is that fear of not coming back the same, of not doing it as soon as possible, of having to make decisions if things don’t work out. Each injury is unique and so is each athlete.. The same injury, in two different bodies, can evolve in totally different ways. And if we talk in the case of men and women, even more. Recovery times and the factors that determine the evolution are different and, therefore, medicine has had to step up to the plate to provide concrete answers. The rip of the cruciate ligamentone of the cruelest injuries that has been plaguing football in recent years, is the one that brings together the most efforts and studies.
“If a man and a woman practice the same sport, for example soccer, the athlete breaks between 4 and 5 times more than the athlete. It’s proven,” says the doctor Joan Carles Monllauan international reference in the field of knee surgery, and who has operated on crusaders for great stars such as Alexia o Gavi. The figures are devastating. Women, for their morphologyalready have a greater tendency to suffer this injury and, in addition, their Recovery time is usually double that of men (needing more than a year). “It seems that the fact of having the slightly wider pelvislas legs a little straighter and the tendency to valgusism (the knee always goes inward) causes women to tear their cruciate ligaments more“, analyzes Dr. Monllau.
Hormonal processes
In addition to their morphology, women are also conditioned by the hormonal processes that go hand in hand with cycle menstrual. “We know that menstrual peaks affect and at times when there is a drop or rise in hormoneswhich responds to the need to have greater laxity and be able to give birth at a given time, there is a greater laxity to the ligaments and just on those days you break more“, Add.
That is why some teams decide to subject their squads to contraceptive therapy throughout the season, to maintain a stable hormonal status throughout the menstrual cycle so that these hormone variations do not occur and the ligaments are more resistant.
There are different ways in which an athlete breaks the cruciate, but it is true that most are due to the same type of movement. A autotraumatismo (a poorly made or uncoordinated turn), the foot stuck in the ground and the athlete turns and the muscles do not fully protect the joint or where the torsion is so brutal that the ligament ends up breaking, since its elasticity and resistance limit is exceeded.
Need for answers and medical studies
«It is only recently that women have begun to become professional in football, and there has barely been time to carry out studies and learn a little more about the players’ bodies. It is clear that it is a different body from that of a man. “I think these are things that need to be improved,” he recently criticized. Alexia Putellas in an interview with FIFPRO. Precisely, the international football players’ union recently published a study in which The main causes of the increase in cases in recent years were sought. “The biggest Workloadlos displacements and the insufficient rest in women’s football cause a greater propensity for injuries, including ligamentous ones,” concluded the study with data from footballers from the main leagues in England, France, Germany and Spain from the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons.
“A few years ago, the Barça He had four cruciate ligament tears in one season. They all jumped alarms and an exhaustive search of the literature was carried out looking at the type of boots, grass, hours competed…And there was very little evidence and scientific verification that what seemed logical was really the cause. In that case, in fact, the players did not wear the same boots nor had they been injured playing on the same type of grass… Everything was different,” refutes Dr. Monllau, with forty years of experience.
“The tendency for you to re-tear the cruciate ligament in the same knee is 4%, but for you to break it in the other knee is 7%. It is more common for you to tear the one in the other leg that not the same”
Beyond the morphological or health-related aspects, There are elements of the environment that influence this type of injury.. “Athletes have always been injured, but it is true that now accumulate more games. This has become a business and there is a commercial interest around which has caused what was previously one game per week and sporadically two games at some point during the season, now a fixed minimum of two a week. They are professionals and they are very prepared to do this, but there is a point that we are reaching the limit of what is asked of these athletes,” analyzes the doctor, who emphasizes the importance of the injured athlete having an environment that encourages calm. “Rushing is the worst ally in this type of injury.“.
“Monstrous pressure”
It must also be taken into account that athletes right now are relevant beyond what happens on the field of play, a factor that invites a rush to return. “These athletes have brutal contracts, they are companies in themselves. And standing still is a drama. If they are established people, that everyone respects them, nothing happens. But if they are people who are about to blow it, as is the case with Gavi now, the pressure they will receive will be monstrous. Or the parents have a very good head and remind him that this is for life. It is better to wait a year now than not have to regret it in two months“concludes Dr. Monllau, who performed surgery on the Barça midfielder.
2024-01-27 06:29:22
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