Gotham FC captain Tierna Davidson tore her ACL and will not play for the U.S. women's national soccer team in Saturday's game against Brazil.
Davidson, 26, went down during a match against the Houston Dash on Friday, grabbing her left leg in noncontact play as she attempted to block an opposing player. She cried as she walked off the field before halftime, prompting concern from spectators.
Gotham announced Wednesday that Davidson injured her left ACL and has been placed on the season-ending injury list just three games into the season.
Yael Averbuch West, Gotham's general manager, said the team was "heartbroken" for the captain.
"Our club will do everything we can to support her through this recovery and rehabilitation process," West said. "We know she will come back stronger than ever."
Angel City's Gisele Thompson, 19, was called up to replace Davidson on the national team after an impressive showing at the SheBelieves Cup earlier this year. She'll join her old sister, Alyssa, in just her third appearance for the senior national team as they play against Brazil on Saturday at SoFi Stadium.
The game is an international friendly match, but many see it as a chance for Brazil to seek redemption after falling short to the U.S. in the Olympic final last year.
This is Davidson's second ACL injury after the defender tore her right ligament in 2022, leading to a roughly yearlong recovery that kept her off the USWNT roster for the 2023 World Cup.
Davidson posted a statement to her Instagram, joking, "In: Matching scars Out: my left ACL."
“The beauty of life is its unpredictable nature,” Davidson wrote. “While I’ve found myself on the adverse side of this unpredictability at the moment, I know this experience will be another colorful chapter of my journey.”
Studies show women in sports are two to eight times more likely to tear their ACLs than men, according to Yale Medicine. The difference plagues female athletics and, in particular, women's soccer.
Part of the increased risk is due to the female pelvis being wider, changing the mechanics of the legs, Yale Medicine reported. Women also have less muscle around the knee, and fluctuating hormone cycles can contribute to the increased risk to their ACLs.
One of the ways trainers and athletes have tried to prevent injury is by engaging in exercise regimens to strengthen those muscles. A newer tactic being considered is redesigning soccer cleats to take into consideration women's physiology rather than the current shoes that are based on men's cleats.
In a report last year, U.K. Parliament's Women and Equalities Committee described the "slow and disparate response" to women's ACL injuries as a sign of the "systemic gender inequality in sports and exercise research."
"While there are positive signs of progress in the sports and exercise research sector, fundamental change is required to achieve equality of attention to health and physiology-related issues affecting women in sport," Caroline Nokes, chair of the committee, said.
The U.K.'s women's league announced last year, following the report, that it was one of the participants of Project ACL. The project is a three-year study focused on reducing women's ACL injuries.
