Credit: IMAGO and Sky Sports.

Michael Mongie

Wed 24 September 2025 17:49, UK Updated Wed 24 September 2025 18:26, UK

The modern game has seen a rise in ACL injuries to footballers, largely due to the amount of games they’re expected to play these days.

Ligament injuries have become more common than ever before with Liverpool’s Giovanni Leoni the most recent player to fall victim to an ACL injury.

Due to the severity of an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injury, the defender will be sidelined for the best part of a year, and he isn’t the only one to experience the debilitating setback…

5. Michael Owen (309 days, 72 games)

During the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, England faced Sweden in a group stage clash but after just 51 seconds of taking to the field, Michael Owen badly twisted his right knee.

Post-match diagnosis confirmed that the 2001 Ballon d’Or winner had ruptured his ACL and would undergo surgery to correct the severe damage. The injury only say Owen return to action 309 days later, missing a total of 72 games for Newcastle United and the England national team.

It’s an injury that seriously derailed one of the most promising careers of all time and led to further problems, which saw Owen go into early retirement in 2013.

After his ACL tear and subsequent surgery, Owen underwent cartilage surgery to repair damage caused by cartilage work that led to the ACL injury in the first place.

In 2018, Owen admitted to being terrified of overexerting himself for risk of further injury. A huge indictment of the psychological damage injuries have on players.

He said: “I went from someone who scored goals, beat players, was quick, ran in channels and crossed the balls. I changed my game.

“The last six or seven years of my career, I just turned into the only thing I could. I was petrified of running into a channel, I just knew I was going to tear a muscle.”

4. Callum Chambers (316 days, 41 games)

During a 2-1 home defeat to Chelsea in December 2019, Callum Chambers ruptured his ACL and underwent surgery in London to repair the damage.

Arsenal reported at the time that the injury would take six to nine months to heal and rehabilitate, but, cruelly, Chambers missed just shy of 11 months. All in all, he missed 316 days and 41 games.

It effectively brought an end to his ability to operate at the highest level and he never returned to the heights he was hitting before the injury.

Reflecting towards the backend of his recovery, Chambers said: “It’s never a good time to get this injury but unfortunately it fell at a bad time for me. I was playing week in week out in the team in a position that I’ve wanted to play for a long time now, so it fell at a bad time.

“But now it’s about getting my fitness back, getting my match sharpness back and being patient with the process.”

Chambers left Arsenal to join Aston Villa two years later, highlighting the damage an ACL tear can do to a promising career.

3. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (317 days, 58 games)

In 2018, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain suffered a horrific knee injury in the Champions League semi-final first leg against Alisson‘s AS Roma and was stretchered off the field.

The diagnosis was as bad as it gets. Oxlade-Chamberlain was confirmed to have a total ACL tear, a ruptured medial collateral ligament (MCL) and a rip in his lateral hamstring tendon.

This required multiple surgeries in one go and saw him brutally miss out on the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

Although he was expected to miss a full year of football, he returned after 317 days and missed a total of 58 games for Liverpool and England.

It was a brutal blow for Oxlade-Chamberlain at a time when he was beginning to become an automatic starter in Jurgen Klopp‘s side.

2. Lisandro Martinez (333 days, 43 games)

In February 2025, Lisandro Martinez suffered an ACL rupture following a challenge with Crystal Palace star Ismaila Sarr and was stretchered off the pitch.

The injury caused him to miss the rest of the 2024-25 season and the start of the current campaign.

In February 2024, the Argentine also injured his MCL and missed several weeks, meaning this is an issue that Martinez and Manchester United need to deal with utmost caution.

At the time of writing, Martinez has missed 43 games and 333 days due to his ACL injury but he is on the comeback trail. In fact, he’s one of two players on the list actively still returning from an ACL tear with Manchester United greatly in need of his talent.

Martinez shared an update showing him training on grass at Manchester United’s AON Training Complex as he targets a return to action this season.

1. Jamaal Lascelles (407 days, 55 games)

In March 2004, Jamaal Lascelles suffered what is now officially the longest ACL injury in Premier League history when he suffered a total rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament during a 4-3 victory for Newcastle United over West Ham.

He, too, underwent surgery but although he was expected to return in nine months, he was out for over a year, missing 407 days and 55 games for club and country. He made his first appearance for Newcastle 13 months later in a pre-season friendly against Arsenal in the summer.

Lascelles made his first competitive appearance against Bournemouth this season, playing for just six minutes as Newcastle continue to manage his load to guard against re-injury.

Eddie Howe has taken the decision to exclude him from Newcastle’s 25-man Champions League squad, admitting the 31-year-old is unhappy about it.

The manager said: “I think he was disappointed, of course, because he’s a winner. He wants to compete and he wants to play like everybody else does. Coming back from his serious knee injury, he’s done really well to come back in the way that he has. He looks in great shape.

“That was a big blow for him. And competition in that position is now really hot. We’ve got some really good defenders at the football club, and Jamaal is one of them.”

Top 15 worst ACL injuries in the Premier League

Beyond the top five worst ACL injuries to Premier League players, there is an exhaustive list of another 10 who were unlucky enough to have suffered this particular problem.

Here are the top 15 worst instances of tears, ruptures or injuries in general to the ACL.

The drastic increase in matches in football in recent years has seen a correlated increase in injuries with players now at greater risk of ACL tears.

Jurgen Klopp has been vindicated for his Club World Cup take in the summer when he warned managers and football decision makers about the dangers of adding even more strain on players in an era when serious injuries are on the rise.

Why an ACL injury is so serious

The ACL is a crucial ligament in the knee that provides stability and flexibility during movement. This ligament is particularly important in football and basketball, where rapid changes in direction are essential in gaining the upper hand on an opponent.

Sudden changes in direction or stopping altogether place the most strain on the ACL.

These injuries typically occur when a player’s foot or leg is stuck and the load on the knee and its ligaments exceeds the maximum load the ligaments can handle.

In the Premier League, it has proven to be the most worrying injury due to the length of time it takes to recover and the fact that players often fail to recover the mobility and flexibility they had before the injury.