Arsenal Women is losing its promising 19-year-old defender, Katie Reid, who had ruptured Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) during the training. The club reported the bad news. It said that Katie Reid underwent surgery. She will be close monitoring by the treatment team at the Sobha Realty Training Centre.
Seventh WSL ACL Injury This Season
It will be the seventh ACL injury in a Women Super League (WSL) player in this season alone. This signifies a worrying pattern in the women game. The same serious injury has also taken place with Reid and her fellow Arsenal teammates. This includes goalkeeper, Manuela Zinsberger, and Michelle Agyemang, who suffered injury during an international assignment.
Cruel Interruption to Breakout Season
This comes at a very bad time to Reid who was having a breakout season. The athletic and technically talented centre-back had already appeared 6 times in the WSL and her good results saw her get a first senior England call in October. But despite the fact that she was forced to step down out of that team on account of an entirely different frivolous matter, her upward movement had given her a good name as one of the most promising young players in the country.
Praise and Parallels to Leah Williamson
Her calmness on the ball, understanding of the game and creating a play through the back of the team had even been in comparison to Arsenal and England defender, Leah Williamson early in her career. Only a few weeks prior to her injury, a long time teammate Steph Catley had stated that We are Katie because she has been ready to go a long time now, a statement that the coaching staff believed in her ability to be ready to play at the highest level.
FIFPRO and Project ACL Address Epidemic
The injury of Reid highlights a major problem with women football. The union of players FIFPRO worldwide has been alarmed at the rate of such injuries and a three year research project Project ACL is being conducted to investigate the risk factors that are complex and which predispose female players to ACL injuries two to six times as compared to males.
Road to Recovery Ahead
Everyone at Arsenal has expressed they look forward to seeing Katie Reid return to action as soon as possible.
As featured on GoonerNews.com
