A study conducted by the German Football Association (DFB) has found that women in football are three times more likely to tear their ACL than their male counterparts.
The German governing body has been conducting research into women’s football injuries for the past three years.
So far this season in the Frauen Bundesliga there have already been seven ACL injuries after just ten games in the campaign.
This is a stark contrast to the men’s Bundesliga which is 11 games in. Despite there being four more teams in the league, there have only been three ACL injuries in the men’s top flight.
Bayern’s Lena Oberdorf suffered her second ACL tear in the past two seasons in October.
So tough to see — Lena Oberdorf faces another ACL injury. 💔
Wishing you a full recovery and a powerful comeback! 💪 pic.twitter.com/6Azm4Y33xs— Soccerdonna (@soccerdonna) October 20, 2025
The DFB has attempted to implement different ideas to avoid as many injuries in the women’s game.
They have introduced “training formats for medical staff and content on injury prevention in coach education” as well as “a scientifically supervised test battery with individual training recommendations”.
Despite all the hard work from experts ACL injuries remain ever prominent in the game, but headway is being made.
Why do women suffer more ACL injuries?
Statistics from the tests tend to trend in the direction that women tear their ACL more than men in football – but why is that?
While the research is still early in development, Saket Tibrewal, an ACL surgeon from London, believes that ‘notches’ could be the key to understanding why women suffer more injuries.
“We are still in the infancy of really understanding this,” Tibrewal said. “I think the reason for that is women’s football has exploded on a professional level over the last few years. Five years ago there were probably the same amount of injuries but people weren’t aware of it. I think that it is now so much more mainstream we are seeing it a lot more.
“The biomechanics of women are very different to men, in terms of muscle strength and landing mechanics. Women’s bone anatomy is also smaller than men’s. Where the ACL goes in, it is in the middle of the knee; we call it the notch. Women seem to have smaller notches; is that a reason to cause impediment or [more] force through it? We don’t know, but it’s something we are looking at.”
