Eidevall on ACL injuries and what needs to change

Jonas Eidevall provided some open and honest insight into anterior cruciate ligament injuries during his pre-Leicester City press conference on Thursday afternoon. 

Following this morning's announcement, Laura Wienroither is now the fourth player to rupture her ACL in our squad this season alongside Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema and Leah Williamson. 

“It's a tragedy for the player and for us as a team, so we’re very disappointed and sad with the news," our head coach told the media.

"It doesn't change the way that we were looking at the [ACL] situation, we just need to continue to do that and as always look to find things to improve for the future, but also to give the absolute best possible medical help to Laura so she can return to play as safely and as quickly as possible.

“The most important thing is that the player feels supported when they are at Arsenal in that we give them full medical and mental support. I think a lot of the time with long-term injuries it’s about continuing to give them that support within the whole period of time, not only the first days but to feel cared and supported by the whole recovery team for that whole period of time, and our medical team is doing a fantastic job with her.

"I’m afraid that there is not just one single answer on [how to to solve the issue - it’s a multifaceted injury and we need to look at the complete picture to see what factors in this we can control; what can we learn and what can we do better. Of course, we need to look at that internally and hopefully we will be better in the future.”

The issue of the frequency of knee injuries is a hot topic within the women's game right now, with many prominent coaches and players requesting more research into the matter.

Jonas believes that all facets of the footballing world, including the domestic and international game, need to come together to work on this collaboratively to ensure player safety and welfare is paramount.

“I think some parts of it is of course internal, and things that we can control," he added. "Then there are things that we need that external cooperation with, for example the playing schedule for the cooperation between clubs and national team, or how and when the competitions are played and how the international match calendar is done.

"That requires governing bodies, football associations, clubs and national teams working together, so there are bits that I think clubs can solve themselves internally but there are also a lot of things that require the whole world of football to cooperate. We need to do both.”