Sophomore and soccer and basketball player Maddie Fanning was racing towards the goal during a playoff game. 

As she tried to avoid the goalie, she planted one foot in the turf and attempted to pivot. Her knee twisted in the opposite direction as she heard that devastating pop many female athletes know all too well. 

Junior Leah Moretti heard that sound when she went down on the field during a club soccer game her freshman year. 

The feeling of getting injured is fresh in sophomore Elizabeth Whitehead’s memory from when she had to be carried off the turf during field hockey practice on the second day of school. 

Sophomore field hockey player Gisele Detweiler and Helena Kaufman ‘25 went through similar experiences as well.

All of these athletes received the same gut-wrenching news. They’d torn their anterior cruciate ligament, or their ACL — a vital knee ligament that connects the femur and tibia. If an athlete hopes to play their sport again, the injury requires surgery and about nine months to completely heal.

Research shows that female athletes are two to eight times more likely to sustain an ACL injury than men in comparable sports like basketball and soccer. Recently this phenomenon has been growing rapidly out of control. 

College basketball stars Paige Buekers and Azzi Fudd tore their ACLs during the 2022-2023 season, taking them out for the remainder. Just a week prior to the 2026 Winter Olympics, decorated American skier Lindsey Vonn announced she had fully torn her ACL, although she opted to compete in the Olympics anyway.

So why are women so much more prone to an ACL injury? Northwestern medicine reports that a woman’s wider hip and pelvis structure and “knock-kneed” leg alignment, altering the position of the knee ligaments, increases the chances for an ACL tear when pivoting, jumping, or landing. 

In a Johns Hopkins Med Q&A, sports medicine specialist Dr. Andre Costera blamed the general looseness of the female knee joints and lack of muscle mass surrounding the ACL compared to men. 

There are so many factors involved that it feels like female athletes have all the odds stacked against them. Haven athletic trainer Dan Walsh points out a connection to female hormones.

“As you’re going through your menstrual cycle, hormones ebb and flow.  When the hormone levels of estrogen and reflexion go down, the ligaments become more pliable, more elastic. If they’re put under stress during an athletic activity, and the conditions are right, when you really crank on it, if those levels are low, they’re more likely to tear,” Walsh said.

Female susceptibility to ACL tears could also have something to do with disparities in early training tactics, like differences in how girls and boys are taught to jump and land, and which muscle developments are emphasized.

“It’s definitely a higher injury rate, and a lot of that can be attributed to differences in anatomy and training,” Chief of Yale Sports Medicine, ACL surgery specialist, and former physician for the men and women U.S soccer teams Dr. Christina Allen said in an NPR interview. “As women grow up, anatomical differences include different quad-to-hamstring ratios — women tend to be more quad-dominant… There’s historically been less emphasis on core strengthening, proprioception, and agility work. That’s improving over time,” 

Local orthopedic physical therapist Craig Fava also notes that overworked and tired athletes are also more likely to be injured. Moretti noted that she was playing on multiple soccer teams when she tore her ACL in 2024.

“A definite variable is the lack of seasons when you play the same sport all year long, especially when you turn 14 or so, there’s not as many breaks,” Fava said. “Maybe two teams, three teams at a time, the same kind of running, jumping and pivoting, there’s more chance of injury because you’re doing more. That’s why, a lot of times they happen later in the season.”

Although ACL injuries have become increasingly common, they are far more serious than  something like an ankle sprain. Patients must journey through nine months of disciplined PT, all while unable to play their sports. 

Moretti, who tore her ACl her freshman year in a club soccer game had to watch from the sidelines as the Haven girls soccer team won the state championship last year.

“You want your team to succeed, but also it’s like, damn, like you want to be out there,” she said. “So it’s definitely a complicated emotion.”

Moretti got good advice from a teammate from a different school: “Really try to be the loudest on the bench, and try to still involve yourself, because it’s hard.”

When dealing with any sports injury, the mental battle can be just as tough or even tougher than the physical one.

“I was just really excited going into this year, it was going to be my year, right?” Whitehead said. “Getting injured so early in the season was so impactful to me, I’ve got to watch all my teammates do so well, and it’s always hard to watch someone else replace you on the field. By the end of season, I was like, ‘Am I really missed?’” 

For many serious high school athletes, not being on the field feels like the end of the world. However, athletes who have been injured can come out mentally and emotionally tougher; the strongest athletes find ways to be hopeful, impactful, and productive even while incapacitated. 

“I could look at it two ways, I could be disappointed with it, or I could start moving forward,”  Fanning said. “So at PT I work hard, every day. I would make sure to stay in contact with my teammates and coaches, take notes, jot everything down so I could better my IQ, and even though I was hurt, I could still make an impact with my team.”

The prevalence of the injury ensures every athlete going through it has somebody to lean on. A community is built between girls who know what it’s like, and the road to recovery becomes that much easier. 

Moretti recalls a club soccer teammate at another high school who had also torn her ACL that helped her throughout her recovery.

“When Maddie [Fanning] tore hers I tried to be that person that my soccer teammate was for me,” Moretti said. “Texting her on the day of her surgery, or trying to give any advice especially when you’re on crutches at the beginning because it’s really painful, honestly even going to the bathroom was hard. My parents talked to Maddie’s parents, like ‘this is what Leah did for PT’, my mom was always texting Maddie’s mom trying to give her advice about what to do.”

With support from doctors, physical therapists, family, friends, and teammates, athletes impacted by ACL injuries can make full recoveries and continue playing their sport at the same or similar level. Athletes know that the transition can be hard, but that it’s important to stay positive and understand that bouncing back will take time. 

“You have to prepare yourself for what’s going to happen when you first step on the court or field. You’re not going to be 100% right away, and that’s fine, and when you do go back, just kill everyone,” Fanning said.

Moretti just concluded her season with the varsity basketball squad, and her injury did not define her.

“I feel like I don’t even notice my injury, it doesn’t affect me. Versus before, I could feel a little bit slower, mentally scared to tackle sometimes, but now I don’t,” Moretti said.

Even though many Haven athletes will make a swift recovery, the female ACL epidemic is not going away anytime soon.

According to Fava, ACL tears have always been an issue. He notes that he’s typically had two or three ACL patients at any given time throughout his career. It’s possible this statistic has always existed, and in-depth research being conducted on women’s sports is a recent development. 

Pre-game or practice warmup programs like FIFA 11, designed to help youth soccer players prevent ACL injuries, have become more prevalent recently, as Fanning and Moretti mention, following the program sometimes.

For girls who are currently going through an ACL injury, Fava emphasizes that there are people out there who know what it’s like, and you are never alone.

“Almost always when you’re going through something like that, there’s somebody else, either in the clinic or a friend or an older student that’s been through it. There’s a lot of camaraderie, it’s almost like a club,” Fava said.