When Arsenal midfielder Victoria Pelova limped off just 12 minutes into the Netherlands' clash with Finland earlier this month, it was hard not to fear the worst.
The 25-year-old was substituted after a fairly innocuous coming together with opposition defender Emma Koivisto and, though she was able to leave the pitch unaided, there was already a familiar sense of dread that started to stir within some quarters of the Arsenal fanbase. Sure enough, just a few days later it was confirmed that Pelova had ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) - one of the key ligaments that help stabilise the knee joint.
The Gunners have now seen seven of their players sustain the injury since the start of 2022 and, with Pelova facing up to a year on the sidelines, the need for drastic action is clear. While Arsenal’s situation is extreme, it is by no means an anomaly and is instead reflective of the wider ACL crisis engulfing the women’s game.
Research suggests female footballers are between two and six times more likely to suffer ACL injuries than their male counterparts, with about two-thirds of those injuries occurring when there is no physical contact.
Fluctuating hormones, poorly tailored boots and a congested calendar have all been put forward as variable factors but, with no root cause clearly discernible, there is one weapon the football industry is turning to to help combat the issue. It is understood clubs across the Women’s Super League (WSL) and beyond are now looking toward data as a potential way of helping stem the tide of serious knee injuries.
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“Because of the amount of money being spent in the men’s game, the sport has really been able to advance in terms of the amount of data that has been collected in the game and the research that is happening is taking place in that space,” Stephen Smith, CEO of sports software company Kitman Labs, told Mirror Football.
“It’s obviously been well-documented that the types of injuries that occur in the women’s game are different than in the men’s game. There are reasons for that happening and we understand some of those reasons but we don’t understand exactly how that plays out within elite environments because there’s a lack of research, there’s a lack of data collection and we don’t know how to compare both sides.
Victoria Pelova is the latest Arsenal star to rupture her ACL“We believe there’s an enormous opportunity to do that and we’ve been investing alongside some of our clients to be able to help better understand that.”
Bridging that knowledge gap has become one of Kitman Labs’ raison d'etres since Smith founded the firm in 2012. After working as a senior injury rehabilitation and conditioning coach with Leinster Rugby in his native Ireland, Smith noticed that the medical, strength and conditioning and performance departments all operated independently, generating vast amounts of data about players, but not sharing it effectively with one another.
Hence Kitman Labs - which gives teams a “360-degree view” of their players - was born, and the company now works in collaboration with a number of sporting organisations, including clubs in the WSL and National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in America, to help collate and analyse crucial data.
“We try to provide a way for teams to be able to collect better information and to be able to make intelligent decisions about how to manage their athletes,” Smith said.
“We work with over 2,000 teams globally now and have contracts with places like the Premier League and Major League Soccer (MLS). We work across various rugby teams too. The vast majority of top-tier teams that you can think of are clients of ours which is great.”
On the significance of clubs within the women’s game now taking a more>
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