Chelsea and England star raises schedule concerns as another player falls to an ACL injury

Martin Macdonald

• 11 Nov 2025 09:05 CST
• 4 min read

Nieuws

Chelsea and England midfielder Keira Walsh believes that football governing bodies around the world need to start listening to the concerns of players when it comes to the increasingly congested schedule of matches.

Walsh's concerns come after one of her England team-mates, Arsenal's Katie Reid, was ruled out for the rest of the reason after injuring her anterior cruciate ligament.

She is the seventh player to suffer an ACL injury since the start of the Women's Super League (WSL) season and that list incudes another England player, Michelle Agyemang.

"Maybe sometimes we do play too many games in a congested fixture schedule. There's not enough recovery time," said Walsh.

"You can do the research, but ultimately you need to listen to the ones going through it and how we can best find the solutions."

Research suggests females are predisposed to ACL injuries more than men and are two to six times more likely to suffer the injury, reports the BBC.

"Sometimes as players you do worry about it," the Chelsea star continued.

"It's a difficult one. You still want to play those games. You still want to play week in, week out and on the big occasions.

"But sometimes people higher up do need to listen to what we're saying as players."

Fixture congestion is a major talking point in men's and women's football at the moment.

On the men's side of things, the schedule is bigger and more bloated than ever thanks to the introduction of the UEFA Nations League and the Club World Cup over the last 10 years.

When Manchester City midfielder suffered an ACL injury last season and not long before that happened, he suggested players could go on strike in protest at the scheduling by UEFA and FIFA.

What is a torn ACL?

The ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) is a band of tissue that joins the thigh bone to the shin bone at the knee joint.

Tearing or spraining an ACL is one of the most common knee injuries and it typically occurs in sports that involve frequent changes of direction, in addition to jumping and landing.

Players will sometimes feel a popping sensation when they tear their ACL, while the injury is often caused by landing incorrectly, stopping or changing direction suddenly, or being involved in a collision.

How long does it take to recover from an ACL injury?

This is dependent on many factors. Players are usually walking again after two weeks and this leads them into a false sense of security that everything is ok. They need to be very carefully managed through the rehabilitation procedure to ensure that they are not overextending themselves while the ligament continues to heal.

The optimal period of recovery is six months but much of the process is in the hands of the player. If they are compliant with the exercises and regimes provided to them then the process can be expedited, but the utmost care has to be taken to ensure that there is no relapse.

There are countless examples of players trying to rush back to finish too soon, and in the most severe cases, it can take a player up to a year to be ready for first-team football once again.

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