Anterior cruciate ligament injuries, more commonly known as ACL injuries, are a devastatingly common injury among athletes in the high performance sector. New research out of Latrobe University in Melbourne has discovered that Australia has the highest rates of ACL reconstructions in the world. It is not only elite athletes that are suffering from ACL damage, athletes as young as seven or eight are beginning to receive ACL reconstructions.
Associate Professor Vertullo, the director of Knee Research Australia, refers to this new found research as grounds for an ‘epidemic’ of knee injuries. There was an estimated 200,000 ACL reconstructions performed between 2000-2015 in Australia alone.