The Horrible Secret of the Beautiful Game
By: Maya Fredrich,
Staff Writer
Soccer, also known worldwide as football, is what the world likes to call, “The Beautiful Game.” Soccer is the only sport in the modern world played by truly every continent. It is a game that the Europeans worship, the Asians perfect, and the South Americans celebrate. But, in the United States it is most popular among woman. Young girls in the U.S. start soccer as early as 3 years old, with hopes to play professionally or even as long as they can.
The U.S. National Woman’s soccer team is currently the number one team in the world, coming in second in the 2011 FIFA Woman’s World Cup and taking home the gold medal in the 2012 London Olympic Games. But with women dominating in this sport, there is also a growing problem that is getting more serious as more young girls participate in this sport. The ACL, medically known as the Anterior Cruciate Ligament, is put under extreme amounts of strain during normal soccer procedures such as constantly kicking and pivoting. After years of training in the sport the ACL can get weak when doing normal activities, and as a result, tear. If the Anterior Cruciate Ligament tears, it requires a simple surgery to be fixed, however the recovery time takes up to nine months or more depending on the severity of the injury and the ligament may never heal the same. A study shows that over 50% of female soccer players, from the ages of 13 to 25, will tear their ACL at least once in their career. While only 30% of male soccer players, from the same age range will tear there ACL.
Nobody knows exactly why female soccer players tear their ACL’s more than males, but some theories say that the female body was not meant to be under that much impact over the years. However, since women have been playing the game competitively for more than 30 years, the female body should be used to playing over long periods of time. With this growing epidemic, should young girls start playing the game as young as 3? Or will this horrible injury be kept as an ugly secret, to this beautiful game?