Female athletes are far more susceptible to cruciate damage and one man is particularly determined to find a solution
“You start to blame yourself,” Claire Rafferty says. “I definitely did. I would go through different phases of feeling sorry for myself. Why? Why is it me? Am I doing something wrong? Am I not training hard enough? When actually it’s stuff that you can’t really see.”
Rafferty’s journey through three ACL injuries has been well documented and her legs bear the long scars of her many surgeries. The former
England international’s injuries were sustained before the professionalisation of the top flight and semi-professionalism of the Championship but female players are still suffering knee ligament injuries in worrying numbers. Research shows they are four to six times more likely to suffer an ACL injury than male footballers.