By Physio Karamo B. Touray
(Bachelor of Physiotherapy, 2025 — Majored Clinical Sports Medicine)
Female football has transformed from a marginalized pursuit into one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, commanding global audiences and inspiring new generations of athletes.
It is no longer just a game played in the shadows of men’s competitions; it is a platform where women display resilience, skill, and courage. The growth of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, UEFA Women’s Champions League, and domestic leagues across continents reflects not only athletic progress but also societal change.
Each match showcases not only tactical brilliance but also the unspoken narrative of women overcoming barriers, pushing physical limits, and redefining professionalism in sport.
With this rise comes responsibility—the responsibility to protect health, sustain careers, and provide evidence-based medical care rooted in authentic research. Football medicine for female players is now a science of prevention as much as treatment, ensuring that passion for the game does not come at the cost of long-term wellbeing.
From the available injury data, the distribution among female footballers shows ankle injuries at 24%, head injuries at 16%, thigh injuries at 12%, knee and lower leg each at 11%, trunk at 9%, and upper extremity at 8%. This mirrors the global evidence collected by F-MARC and UEFA where the majority of injuries in women’s football affect the lower limb, with ankle sprains being the single most common diagnosis.
Such findings are reinforced by FIFA tournament surveillance data that consistently show about two-thirds of all injuries in women’s football occur below the waist, while UEFA’s elite club study emphasizes that thigh muscle injuries are most frequent and anterior cruciate ligament injuries remain the most burdensome, often sidelining players for many months.
The higher share of head injuries in this profile compared to some multicenter reports requires attention, since head trauma in women’s football is increasingly recognized as a serious concern due to differences in neck strength, ball-to-head exposure, and match play demands.
Match injury incidence still outweighs training by several folds, suggesting that preventive strategies must be integrated directly into football-specific movements under fatigue conditions.
Biomechanical factors such as knee valgus loads during cutting and landing, eversion or inversion at the ankle during tackles, and reduced recovery windows in congested calendars contribute to this injury map.
Women players face unique exposure to ACL injuries due to anatomical, hormonal, and neuromuscular control differences, a fact that UEFA has prioritized through its expert panels and guidelines on equipment, pitch surfaces, and female-specific preventive measures.
For these reasons, providing qualified medical services is no longer optional but essential. Female footballers are at risk of many common sports-related injuries due to their anatomical characteristics, biomechanical variations, and physiological demands. Qualified sports physiotherapists, team doctors, athletic trainers, and rehabilitation specialists form the foundation of a safe playing environment.
Their role is not confined to treating injuries when they occur but extends to preseason screenings, load monitoring, injury-prevention programming, and structured rehabilitation. Having a competent medical team ensures that female footballers are assessed holistically, that return-to-play decisions are evidence-based and that long-term health are prioritized alongside competitive performance.
Without this professional framework, women athletes remain exposed to preventable risks, prolonged recovery periods, and compromised careers.
The central intervention promoted by FIFA’s Medical Assessment and Research Centre remains the FIFA 11+ program. Multiple controlled trials and systematic reviews confirm that when applied consistently and with quality technique, this warm-up reduces overall and lower extremity injuries in female footballers.
For a team with high ankle injury prevalence, proprioceptive and balance progressions, hop-and-stick drills, and perturbation exercises should be emphasized. At the knee, hip-abductor strengthening, Nordic hamstring exercises, and landing mechanics with trunk control are essential.
For thigh injuries, sprint mechanics, posterior-chain strength, and load management around high-speed running exposures reduce risk. For head injury prevention, proper heading technique, vision training, and rigorous sideline concussion protocols aligned with FIFA and UEFA must be upheld.
Medical systems on match day should ensure emergency action plans are rehearsed, concussion recognition tools are implemented, and sideline personnel are trained for airway, cervical spine, and mass-gathering emergencies.
Collaboration with kit manufacturers to provide female-specific footwear and careful monitoring of surfaces helps minimize non-contact lower limb injuries. Load management, acute-to-chronic workload monitoring, and structured recovery sessions are integral to reducing cumulative risk over the season.
The injury distribution in this cohort aligns with contemporary female football medicine: ankle injuries remain the most common, knee and thigh injuries carry significant performance and time-loss consequences, and head trauma requires vigilant management.
By embedding FIFA 11+, female-specific ACL prevention, UEFA-guided medical systems, and the provision of qualified medical services, practitioners can convert epidemiological findings into practical reductions in injury burden. Female football is not only about competing at the highest level; it is about safeguarding the athlete behind the jersey, ensuring that the beauty of the game is matched by the integrity of care. In this way, medicine and sport walk hand in hand, empowering women to play, inspire, and endure.
Today, there is a renewed sense of optimism as governing authorities step up with dedicated medical panels, funding for women’s health research, and tailored injury-prevention frameworks. FIFA, UEFA, and national associations are finally aligning their policies with the unique demands of female footballers, signaling a future where prevention is prioritized as much as performance.
This is not only a victory for science but a statement of respect for the women who give their hearts and bodies to the game. The message is clear: the world of football medicine is listening, and the time to protect and empower female footballers has truly arrived.
