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The greatest risk of anterior cruciate ligament injuries or ACL injuries is for people who participate in sports that involve a lot of changing direction, twisting and jumping.1 Females are 2-8 times more likely to injure their ACL compared to males. Read this blog to learn more about the issue that makes women more likely to tear their ACL. Most ACL injuries occur between the ages of 15 and 45.1
Studies consistently report basketball and football as sports that cause ACL injuries.1,2 However, it is possible to injure the ACL in other sports that require a lot of twisting, cutting (changing direction quickly), jumping and contact sports.1 Female athletes are generally more at risk for ACL injuries.1
Using data from the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Injury Surveillance System (ISS), 5,000 ACL injuries were recorded between 1988 and 2004. Based on this data, sports are ranked below based on the number of ACL injuries. The left side of this table shows the number of ACL injuries that have occurred as a percentage compared to all other injuries in a sport. On the right side of this table the number of ACL injuries registered per 1000 matches and training (also called exposures).
| ACL injuries as a percentage compared to all injuries3 | Injury rate per 1000 exposures3 |
|---|---|
| 1. Women’s Basketball (tie) | 1. Men’s Spring Football (tie) |
| 1. Women’s gymnastics (tie) | 1. Women’s gymnastics (tie) |
| 2. Women’s Lacrosse | 2. Women’s football |
| 3. Women’s football | 3. Women’s basketball |
| 4. Men’s Spring Football | 4. Men’s football |
| 5. Men’s football | 5. Men’s football |
| 6. Women’s Softball | 6. Men’s wrestling |
| 7. Women’s volleyball | 7. Men’s wrestling |
| 8. Women’s hockey | 8. Men’s football |
| 9. Men’s wrestling | 9. Women’s volleyball |
| 10. Men’s Basketball | 10. Women’s Softball |
| 11. Men’s football | 11. Women’s hockey |
| 12. Men’s Ice Hockey | 12. Men’s Basketball |
| 13. Women’s Ice Hockey | 13. Men’s Ice Hockey |
| 14. Men’s Baseball | 14. Women’s Ice Hockey |
If you have suffered an ACL tear from playing any of the above sports, there is an app, Curovate, to help you with your daily recovery. Curovate offers recovery exercises for ACL injuries and ACL surgery to help you return to the sport you love. Curovate provides your daily physiotherapy exercises, tracks your daily training progress, has in-app chat with a physiotherapist to answer your questions and allows you to measure your knee range of motion with the app. Download Curovate via the links below.
If you need more tailored help during your ACL injury or ACL surgery, check out our Virtual Physiotherapy page to book your 1-on-1 video session with a physiotherapist.
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