Arsenal defender Teyah Goldie has become the fifth first-team player to sustain an anterior cruciate ligament injury over the last nine months.

The Gunners have confirmed that the 19-year-old has “undergone surgery” and has now started the early stages of her rehabilitation.

It is believed that Goldie picked up the issue while she was away from training but the club’s medical team have since learned the extent of the injury.

Arsenal have had terrible luck with ACLs recently. Beth Mead was first sidelined with the problem back in November before Vivianne Miedema was struck down just a month later.

England captain Leah Williamson then suffered the same fate in April, ruling the midfielder out of the World Cup, with Laura Wienroither following suit not long afterwards.

Women are 6 times more likely to pick up ACL injuries

Speaking to Sky Sports earlier this year, Dr. Emma Ross revealed that women footballers are “are up to six times more likely to have a non-contact ACL injury than their male counterparts.”

There are a number of factors at play, including looser joints as well as ill-fitting football boots that are designed for men, but more research is required to get to the bottom of why these injuries are more prevalent.

Arsenal are investigating why their squad has been adversely affected

Manager Jonas Eidevall spoke out about the Gunners’ own investigation into ACLs back in May. The Swede said that they are looking at ways they can mitigate the risk of them occurring through bespoke training methods, better conditioning or recovery programmes:

“We need to look at the complete picture and see which factors we can control. We need to look at that internally to see what we can do better in the future. ”

Of course, this won’t help the likes of Goldie, Mead, Miedema, Williamson and Wieroither now but it will, hopefully, prevent ACLs from happening as often.