Fulham's Beau Parker on second 'traumatic' ACL injury - as lab asks why female footballers are more susceptible

The second time Fulham footballer Beau Parker suffered an ACL injury was even harder to process.

"It's really traumatic," the 24-year-old tells Sky News. "You just don't expect it to just keep happening to you. That's the hardest part because I don't know if my future is going to be in football any more."

Just like in 2023, she is enduring a lengthy road to recovery after rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament on what should have been a day of joy in May.

As Fulham sealed the title, Parker, like her team, was on the up - to the fourth tier. It is far from the growing financial rewards of the Women's Super League and the Lionesses, but playing football is all she ever wanted to do.

"I just don't want that to happen again and just have to be retiring at the age of 24 - it's just ridiculous," she says. "This has happened so often now."

Not just to Parker with more female players disproportionately tearing their ACLs.

Take this season.

England star Michelle Agyemang is one of eight Women's Super League (WSL) players with the injury, while there are only three male players with it in the larger Premier League.

Kingston University, with funding from FIFA, is running one of the research projects trying to find out why. Players from Fulham and WSL champions Chelsea are assisting with the research.

They believe female players are two to seven times more susceptible to ACL ruptures than their male counterparts.

It's not just about differences in muscles and limbs - from size to strength.

Inside the lab

We are in a lab seeing the movements of master's student Jessica Nuttman being captured by 3D motion cameras as she is running, decelerating and jumping - common ways players tear their ACLs.

"There's so little literature on female football players, especially ACL injuries within female football players," she says, "and there's such a biomechanical difference between a male and a female, it's really important to look further into it."

Blood samples are being analysed alongside physical performance data.

They want to discover if the risk of performance and injury is linked to the prevalence of oestrogen and progesterone in their blood.

'Myriad of factors' contribute to discrepancy

Simon Augustus, Kingston University senior lecturer in biomechanics, says: "Some of the hormones that are related to their menstrual cycles might induce changes to their physiology throughout their cycles, which might increase the risk of them of that injury occurring.

"Women tend to play on different pitches, and there might be some footwear and turf-related factors that are contributing.

"There is also evidence that the neuromuscular activation patterns that women have compared to men are different, which might place them at risk.

"So at the moment there seems to be a myriad of factors which are contributing to this discrepancy between the injury rates."

It could lead to bespoke risk profiles being created, basing strength training around the menstrual cycle and working on different playing techniques.

There are issues football bosses want to address ahead of the UK hosting the Women's World Cup in 2035.

Current research has focused on men and boys

FA director of women's football, Sue Day, tells Sky News: "There's so much work to do in women's sport generally, research-wise, because so much of the research that exists has been done in men's sport or on men and boys. And so there is a gap.

"We are working really hard with other partners to fill that gap. We need to understand ACL injuries better. We need to understand the impact of menstruation better. All these things in women sport that we don't understand well enough."

Solutions cannot come soon enough

Parker dreams of playing again by March. Solutions cannot come soon enough to ensure she is not sidelined yet again.

Being a casualty of what has been described as the women's football ACL "epidemic" can be more acute for those lower down the leagues, without the financial resources of WSL teams.

"I want to know what I can do to prevent it from happening again," Parker says. "Obviously, I understand injuries happen all the time, but it's also just the process of the rehab. It's nine to 12 months, and … that's what the hard bit is."

(c) Sky News 2025: Fulham's Beau Parker on second 'traumatic' ACL injury - as lab asks why female foot