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The 2023-24 season had not yet started when Chelsea centre-back Wesley Fofana and Aston Villa midfielder Emiliano Buendia were ruled out of most of it with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears. By October, four more had been added to the list: Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings, Arsenal’s Jurrien Timber, Brentford’s Rico Henry and Tottenham Hotspur’s Ivan Perisic.
This week another name was added to the list. Liverpool confirmed that defender Joel Matip had ruptured his ACL during the 4-3 win over Fulham last weekend.
Last season, there were just four ACL injuries overall (five if you include Chelsea’s Armando Broja, whose injury occurred during the pause for the World Cup), so it’s perhaps unsurprising that this season’s tally has sparked cries of an ‘ACL epidemic!’
Joel Matip is likely to miss the remainder of the season (Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)
Those cries inevitably lead to the search for a cause.
Is it a delayed after-effect of last winter’s World Cup coupled with a rushed return to domestic play? Is it the knock-on effect of a seemingly never-ending season, with UEFA Euro qualifying games taking place in mid-June? Is it a pre-season packed with…
