Revealed: Alarming lack of support after serious injury leaving female athletes in financial strife

Top female athletes have complained of being denied sufficient financial, medical and emotional support to recover from serious injuries, according to a wide-ranging investigation by Telegraph Sport.

Several senior sportswomen - including footballers from Liverpool and Aston Villa, and a Wales rugby international - claimed that the lack of provision made for them at the time of their injuries led to them fearing for their futures.

The situation is particularly extreme in football. Female players are already more at risk from anterior cruciate ligament knee injuries than their male counterparts, partly for physiological reasons, but also due to hormonal fluctuations. A recent US study showed women footballers to be eight to 10 times more likely to suffer the injury than men.

Although the Football Association provides medical cover for the 26 centrally-contracted England players, Women's Super League Clubs are not obliged to provide medical insurance.

In 2015, Emilie Rivett suffered a serious knee injury - including a torn ACL - while playing for Liverpool, then WSL champions. Rivett claims that the club's physiotherapist told her they could not afford to even supply her with a knee brace and that she would have to rely on the NHS for treatment. It was only when she was told that she would have to wait months for an operation that Liverpool agreed to pay for a private operation.

"I was really disheartened," Rivett said. "My mum had had to go and buy a more supportive than just a tuber grip out of her own pocket. I always thought that was really unfair, seeing as Liverpool are such a big club, having to rely on my mum to do that."

Rivett suffered mental health problems, including anxiety and depression, as a result of her injury, although she insists she does not blame Liverpool for the treatment she received.

In a statement, Liverpool told Telegraph Sport: "In terms of the current situation, we have a full medical provision on staff, closely linked to our men’s team. We provide healthcare and medical cover through the Premier League scheme, fully approved by the FA Women’s Super League."

The situation for players is even more precarious in the second tier. Aston Villa, a semi-professional side in the Women’s Super League 2, do not provide medical insurance for players. Hayley Crackle who tore her hamstring in August 2018, told Telegraph Sport that she has lost earnings as she is a self-employed personal trainer and has had to rely on financial support from her parents to get by.

“I had just over a month off," she said. "I was going in to do little bits, teaching classes, but in terms of me earning money, I had six weeks off. No sick pay or holiday pay or anything like that - that’s how it is when you’re self-employed. Villa don’t pay us at all so I couldn’t get anything from the club.”

Villa forward Kerri Welch also expressed disappointment at the lack of support she received after sustaining an ACL injury in the 2015-16 season.

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"I don’t think players get the right support," she told Telegraph Sport. "In the male game, they’ll get that sort of support as standard, but we only get two nights a week and game day contact time with the club at Aston Villa.

"We’re getting injured being played for a football club but there’s no benefits to that. Villa put £150 towards my MRI scan, which came to £350 in total, but then everything else, all my massage appointments and chiropractor appointments, I had to pay for myself because we don’t get that through the club.”

Aston Villa declined to comment when asked for a response.

The situation is also troubling in rugby union. Jade Knight, a Wales international, injured her knee playing in a game for Ospreys in a regional competition.

"I was playing in a regional game, so there was no cover from the Welsh Rugby Union," she said. "My local surgeon in south Wales didn’t want to operate and said I would not play sport to a high level again." Ultimately, Knight's career was only saved when gained access to private health cover through her husband's insurance policy.

A statement from the Welsh Rugby Union read: "All players selected to train or play within the Wales Women programme are fully covered for any medical costs."

England World Cup winner Tamara Taylor recovered from an ACL injury in 2008 but recognises she was one of the fortunate ones, as her health care was covered by the Rugby Football Union. “If I didn’t have insurance and had to wait, I never would have gotten back to the level I was at,” she said.

The RFU have set a minimum standards criteria whereby all Tyrrells Premier 15s clubs must have in place either a medical insurance scheme or treatment policy for their players and there is an option for clubs to insure their players with an annual policy, on a loss of earnings basis, via the RFU’s broker.

Netball is another sport blighted by ACL injuries due to how players “must change direction rapidly and the landing required”, according to English Institute of Sport lead physiotherapist Dr Lee Herrington. Commonwealth Games gold medallist Beth Cobden suffered an ACL injury, as has England international Sasha Corbin.

Governing bodies are more alert to the fact that women are more at risk of ACL injuries and Telegraph Sport understands that Netball England are instigating a ground-breaking programme of training that will help players prevent and educate players around ACL injuries.

Case studies

Emilie Revitt suffered a serious knee injury playing for Liverpool against Manchester City in 2015. Subsequent injuries in 2018, playing for FC United, forced her to retire aged 22.

The only way I can describe an ACL injury is like snapping a carrot – the feeling and the sound. It was instant pain, with my leg feeling very loose.

Because I was living in Wales, I drove back from Manchester with my leg in the state it was. I got home, stumbled into the house and my mum took me straight up to A&E. It was so swollen that they had to cut my club tracksuit off me. I left the hospital with nothing but a tuber grip and a pair of crutches.

The Liverpool physios said they could not afford to give me a simple knee brace on their budget. My mum had to go and buy something more supportive out of her own pocket. I always thought that was unfair, as they’re such a big club.

Liverpool were happy for me to go through the NHS until I had my third consultant meeting in October. Then the consultant said I would not have an operation until July, because the waiting list was so long.

I went to the first-team physio and explained my situation. Liverpool ended up paying for my operation, but it was quite a process to get to that point.

An injury like that ruins you. I suffer quite badly with mental health, but to then be dealing with everything else broke me. I have dreams where I am trying to play football and I just can’t. I wake up and I am sweating; crying. There was depression in there. I could not do anything but sit in a room and think about everything that was going on.

I gave 18 years of my life to build a football career. Then you get to the final thing and it is smashed into a million pieces. My physio was a massive help – she just listened – but as far as professional psychologists go, I did not have anything from Liverpool either.

But I would never pass the blame on to them. They did right by me in the end.

But would it be the same situation if I was a male? I would be in and out the same week, surgery done. Unfortunately, as female footballers, that is just what we have got to face.

Jade Knight ruptured her ACL playing football for Wales aged 14. It took her a decade to resolve before she finally made her rugby international debut aged 28.

In the end, the problems with my ACL forced me to retire from football as a teenager and pick up rugby, but the knee kept giving way, so right before the Six Nations in 2012, I had to go through the NHS. I was playing in a regional game, so there was no cover from the Welsh Rugby Union. My local surgeon did not want to operate and said I would not play sport to a high level again. I think the players get more support now.

I came back and rehabbed really hard and got back in the Wales squad but I fell pregnant and my knee continued to give way. I had given up on sport and I did not see the point of working so hard only to get injured. But by this point I had access to private health insurance through my husband’s work scheme.

That changed everything. I went to an expert surgeon who works with lots of professional rugby players. After having an MRI, he spotted what was wrong.

Having a surgeon who was so experienced and confident helped me buy into it. It was a really big operation and the surgeon was confident I would get back to sport if I wanted to but he said it would be a very long recovery.

My motivation was all about kicking a ball with my son, rather than sport and quality of life. My ACL and PCL [posterior cruciate ligament] were both ripped out and I had new ones put in.

The psychological impact was massive, especially the route to get it fixed.

It had been suggested to me that I speak to a sport psychologist – that it was in my mind causing it to give way and that I was not mentally strong enough to push past.

It is true that if I get tackled on my right I will always go down a little bit easier. Psychologically, those scars are still there, but I am getting stronger now. I hope it gets better but when you get days where it aches, it really plays on my mind.