It was a normal Sunday afternoon for Sharn Clarke, playing football for her local side before the moment came that changed her whole footballing journey forever…
Sunday the 19th of February 2023, a standard Sunday afternoon game of football in the sun away against the league leaders who were unbeaten all season, Coventry Sphinx, for Sedgley and Gornal United. A great team performance nearly saw the team come away with a draw however, for Sharn Clarke the game was memorable in a completely different kind of way, the dreaded words that no female player ever wants to hear, “You’ve torn your ACL”.
But first of all, what is your ACL?
- ACL is an abbreviation for the anterior cruciate ligament, it is around the size of your little finger but it is one of the key ligaments that stabilises your knee joint. It connects the thighbone (femur) to the shinbone (tibia) and it’s most commonly torn during sports that involve sudden stops and changes in direction.
The moment Sharn tore her ACL the whole pitch fell silent, all you could hear was a huge scream, followed by cries of pain from her and the look of worry and sadness was present on all her teammates’ faces. The game was stopped for around 30 minutes for her to get the best care and help from as many people as possible and it was her teammates who had to drive her to a local hospital in Coventry and stay with her for many hours after the game had finished.
Sharn relived that horrible moment in time with me and this is what she had to say: “The injury happened from me trying to perform a slide tackle when my right leg got stuck in the floor with my whole body facing the complete opposite way to my leg. Unfortunately, I dislocated my knee when the opposition player fell on top of my leg, upon trying to relocate it, it wasn’t a successful relocation.
“I instantly felt immense pain, the pop from my knee was so loud the players across the field could hear it, as I watched my knee jolt back. I knew as soon as I heard the sound and felt my leg shoot back that I had torn my ACL. The pain for a few moments was emotional cries for help but after the adrenaline had worn off, the pain was significantly worse. All I remember of it was that I was rolling around on the floor screaming but luckily I had both my teammates and the opposition players holding my hands and calming me down, telling me everything would be okay.
“It felt like someone got a vice and crushed my knee but was stabbing it at the same time. I instantly knew the journey I was about to face, my passion for football was about to be taken away from me.”
ACL injuries have certainly become a lot more frequent over the last few years, top professionals in the WSL such as Leah Williamson, Beth Mead, Sam Kerr, and Vivianne Miedema are just a few of the big names to have suffered but recovered from this horrific injury.
Sky Sports did an estimate that around 195 elite athletes have suffered an ACL injury in the last 18 months, and according to orthopaedic surgeon Nev Davies’ study, women are said to be six times more likely to tear their ACL than their male counterparts, also female players are 25% less likely to make a full recovery and return to the pitch at all.
Training and recovery, football boots, scheduling, and fixtures are just some of the factors that can lead to an ACL injury.
However, not too much research has been done into why women are six times more likely to get this injury than males. This is set to change as back in December 2023 European football’s governing body UEFA announced the introduction of an expert panel on women’s health to seek a deeper understanding of ACL injuries and their frequency among female players.
Sharn said: “Of course, I encourage more research to be done! Studies already are starting to show how the female anatomy is different from a man’s. And our knees being one of them! Things like menstrual periods possibly affect the chances of you tearing your ACL. These are things you don’t hear people talk about as all studies regarding sports were mainly male-concentrated.
“With the women’s game now forever growing it’s only fair our bodies are looked into too, it’s obvious that the injury is more prone with women as you said it was estimated around 195 professional female football athletes tore their ACL within 18 months. An entire squad could have been made in the 2023 World Cup involving the professional footballers who were missing out due to their ACL injuries. This number doesn’t even compare to those young girls and women suffering from these injuries playing grassroots. I feel a lot more would have been done sooner if this was the same in the men’s game affecting the top 5 divisions.”
Women’s professional players tend to receive surgery just days/weeks after sustaining the injury so they aren’t away from the game for too long and can begin their recovery process quicker as it’s most likely paid for by their respective clubs.
At a grassroots level, this doesn’t happen. In recent months, a lot of players have been forced to set up GoFundMe pages to get enough money to have private surgery as on average it costs around £8,500-£9,000 for the surgery depending on the severity and which hospital you go to.
Post pandemic the NHS has been strained, and Sharn had to wait one year, three months, and 14 days after suffering her injury to receive her surgery which took a massive toll on her everyday life, and mental health. She received her surgery on the 10th of June this year.
Sharn bravely told me about how her ACL injury took a tole on her life: “When I first hurt my knee I had to take a month off work and could only afford a month’s sick pay, I sent myself back into work too early than what I was advised which was at least 8 weeks. I had holidays booked abroad that year with friends where I wasn’t able to participate in some activities like jet skiing and I couldn’t explore much either due to not being able to walk more than a short distance. Even still months after my injury.
“My hope to become a Paramedic at my job was suspended due to my time off and then becoming unable to meet the fitness requirements because I couldn’t walk up and down the stairs for 5 minutes. It also completely took over my mental health. I was at my lowest point last year. I felt like it completely stopped me from being able to live my life. At the time I was 20 years old, I was going out partying with my friends but I couldn’t stand on my feet for very long at all.
“As I said my dream job was taken away from me, and I felt so isolated from being stuck in the house all the time. I felt like a burden on my mates to be constantly moaning about my pain and limiting them to what they could do with me because I had my limitations.”
Many players always question and dread the feeling that they will never be able to play football again, but with the right recovery and support it’s possible as we’ve seen with the elite athletes.
Although grassroots is slightly different, the harsh reality is, that with grassroots football clubs, players have so long of a break from the game, that sometimes the motivation and determination to play dwindles.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, it usually takes six to nine months to recover from a torn ACL, but, if a player is waiting for surgery in the meantime, then the recovery process, could be well over a year, maybe closer to two.
The injury and recovery process affects people in different ways, of course, most players do make a full recovery and work their way back up to playing again, but some also explore other sports and passions instead.
What are Sharn’s plans for the future looking like?
“When I first experienced the injury there was nothing more I wanted than to get back on the pitch with the girls and play. However, with the amount of time I’ve had away from the game and still having a very long recovery to go my chances to return to football are becoming much more slim. I may change my mind in a few years, who knows.
“As I waited so long for my surgery I managed to get to a stable point where I could do most of the things I had wanted with controlled pain relief and limitations. I tried to play football like going to training and even attempted to play a few games with my knee strapped. It just wasn’t possible and it kept giving way on me. Eventually, I made the tough decision to stop as it was causing me more harm and pain than good. People who have never experienced this injury will never understand how hard it is. Some people think after a year I would be fine again but with 2 ligaments torn and my meniscus fully torn there wasn’t anything hardly left in my knee giving me stability.
“Not enough is spoken about the psychological effects a major injury can have on your body. Ultimately, it did make me fall out of love with football. I stopped paying attention to football as I got jealous watching it on the TV. I stopped following my team who I played for as it was painful to watch people do something I once enjoyed.
“I had to find other interests to keep me happy. It put me in a bad place and to have something that was an escape for me on the Sunday to become then the thing that endures my pain was so hard. It was psychologically demanding suffering in silence cause although I spoke about it with my friends and family I still didn’t feel understood. They will never understand the pain.”
Before playing football Sharn was also a roller skater, she has been skating for 16 years of her life, during her recovery process the 21-year-old has been coaching some younger children and has rediscovered her passion and love for the world of skating, so instead of playing football she may return to skating once again.
Upon overall reflection on her ACL injury experience and recovery, Sharn told me: “I would love to play football again, however, my career and mental health matters and I can’t take another hit like this again so soon. I wouldn’t wish this experience upon anyone at all. It’s possibly the hardest thing I’ve had to deal with at such a young age. Not only do I have to get over the mental block of this experience, but I also have to have faith that the other 11 girls on the opposition team don’t want to maliciously hurt me which unfortunately isn’t unheard of, especially in grassroots. Whereas, when I skate it’s just me, so I don’t have to worry about anyone else hurting me at all other than myself.”
Sporty AF 