Former U.S. women’s national team fitness coach Dawn Scott has raised the alarm over ACL injuries in women’s soccer.

“We NEED research to explore such information — an increasing number of ACL injuries are not a good statistic,” Scott tweeted on Nov. 12. Her warning seems particularly prescient two weeks later, as England star Beth Mead ruptured her ACL in a Women’s Super League match Saturday.

We NEED research to explore such information - an increasing number of ACL injuries are not a good statistic - but I feel there are some inaccuracies around the direct relation to the menstrual cycle, and what this article clearly highlights is the following:
1 We NEED research https://t.co/CrfVcTKyPe

— Dawn Scott (@DawnScott06) November 13, 2022

Scott worked with the Lionesses as their head of sport science from 2001-10, then returned as their senior physical performance manager from 2019-21. Between those stints with England, she served as the USWNT’s high performance manager, helping the U.S. to two World Cup titles and an Olympic gold medal.

She spent a year as performance director for Inter Miami CF of the MLS before leaving earlier this month to serve in the same role for the Washington Spirit of the NWSL.

Her experience with women’s and men’s teams gives her important perspective on the increased risk of ACL injuries for women athletes.

One in 19 women playing soccer rupture their ACL, per a 2019 study, and women are two to eight times more likely to experience an ACL tear than men, per research cited by the Yale School of Medicine in 2020.

Scott pointed to the need for research specific to women athletes, from the “grassroots to the elite level,” especially in terms of training methods. Women and men have “physiological, psychological, biomechanical and hormonal differences,” she said, and more must be done to make sure women are getting the proper training and care.

“Are we supporting players in relation to lifestyle, nutrition, psychology, biomechanics, sleep and movement profiling?” she continued.

Scott’s questions come amid a rash of ACL injuries at the highest levels of women’s soccer.

Players who have injured their ACLs in 2022 include: USWNT’s Tierna Davidson, Catarina Macario and Christen Press; France’s Dzsenifer Marozsán and Marie-Antionette Katoto.; Spain’s Alexia Putellas; England’s Beth Mead; Australia’s Ellie Carpenter; Brazil’s Marta; and Denmark’s Nadia Nadim.

That list — which includes Ballon d’Or winner Putellas, runner-up Mead, and two more nominees in Macario and Katoto — would make An impressive World Cup roster in its own right. Instead, all these players are in a race against the clock to recover in time for the 2023 World Cup, which is set to kick off July 20 in Australia and New Zealand.

A team of women with current ACL injuries would win a championship if they were healthy pic.twitter.com/jlWsHPJAsG

— Samantha (@SS_Evans_) November 22, 2022

With the 2025 WNBA season around the corner, sportsbooks have already been setting the field for this year's MVP race, with odds heavily slanted toward three early frontrunners.

Last season's Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark leads the 2025 race, with FanDuel currently placing the Indiana Fever guard at +200, followed closely by Las Vegas's three-time league MVP A'ja Wilson (+230), and Minnesota's 2024 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Napheesa Collier (+300).

DraftKings rates Clark similarly at +220, putting Wilson at +225 and Collier at +400.

After a blockbuster rookie season, opinions on Clark's sophomore ceiling vary, with ESPN ranking the 23-year-old as the WNBA's overall fourth-best player entering the 2025 season, trailing just Wilson, Collier, and New York's 2023 MVP and 2024 champion Breanna Stewart.

However, the media giant's own ESPN BET has Clark leading the MVP odds at +200, a likely response to bettor interest rather than analyst predictions.

Dallas's 2025 No. 1 draft pick Paige Bueckers is the clear favorite for this season's Rookie of the Year award, carrying -255 odds on ESPN BET despite not making the overall preseason Top 25.

There's no such thing as a sure bet, but the market is clearly mirroring fan interest, hyping up these young players before a single team takes the 2025 season's court.

The LPGA is back on the East Coast with the 2025 Mizuho Americas Open teeing off in New Jersey on Thursday, with defending champ Nelly Korda on the hunt for her first win of the year.

After an unprecedented 2024 run, the world No. 1 golfer has struggled to regain her consistency this season, despite strong individual rounds.

"I've had some really good rounds, and some iffy rounds as well," the 26-year-old told reporters earlier this week. "But I think that's just the game of golf — it's life, it's up, it's down, it's never going to be easy. And when you think you've got it figured out, it's going to humble you very quickly."

Korda isn't alone in her 2025 Americas Open pursuit, as fellow US star Rose Zhang makes her return to the links this week — despite battling a lingering neck injury.

The world No. 26 golfer, who turns 22 years old at the end of this month, won the inaugural Americas Open in her 2023 pro debut, but sat out last month's Chevron Championship — the year's first major — citing neck discomfort.

"I will say that I'm pain-free right now, which I'm very thankful for," Zhang told Golf Digest. "I never realized, and obviously it goes unsaid, but the neck is very important for anything that you do."

In addition to another chance to get back on course, Korda and Zhang will also be chasing the lion's share of the four-day tournament's $3 million purse — one of the largest non-major prize pools on the LPGA schedule.

Notably, the Americas Open follows a unique format, inviting 24 top American Junior Golf Association players to tee off alongside the LPGA Tour's 120 best at Liberty National Golf Club.

How to watch the 2025 Mizuho Americas Open

Coverage of the 2025 Mizuho Americas Open starts at 11 AM ET on Thursday.

The Golf Channel will stream the tournament through Sunday morning, with the competition's final round airing live at 1 PM ET on Sunday on CBS.

The 2025 WNBA preseason put together an exceptionally strong start this weekend, earning stellar viewership led by the fan-favorite Indiana Fever.

In the league's first-ever fully broadcast preseason, Sunday's exhibition between the Fever and the Brazil women's national team earned ESPN an average audience of 1.3 million viewers, with a peak at 1.6 million fans.

That average represents a 13% increase over the network's 2024 WNBA regular-season viewership per game.

Even more, Sunday's Fever audience surpassed the viewership marks of every NBA preseason matchup on ESPN since 2018, as well as topping the then-record number of fans who tuned into Game 1 of the 2024 WNBA Finals.

Sunday's pregame show WNBA Countdown also saw a big boost, averaging 571,000 viewers to mark a 71% year-over-year increase.

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Fever, Clark fuel WNBA-leading attendance, viewership

The 108-44 Indiana victory was a homecoming for 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark, with the exhibition taking place at her alma mater, Iowa.

Like the clamor to tune into the game, all 15,500 seats at Carver-Hawkeye Arena — where Clark's No. 22 jersey was raised into the rafters in February — sold out in just 24 minutes.

The fanbase surrounding Clark and the Fever is notoriously enthusiastic, with demand for tickets to see Indiana on the road surpassing all other WNBA teams this season.

Similarly — as evidenced by Sunday's exhibition — the Fever drives significant viewership numbers. The WNBA is strategically capitalizing on that trend, granting Indiana more national broadcasts and streams than any other team in the league this season.

Aiming to add even more most-watched games to the network's docket, ESPN platforms snagged 10 of the Fever's 41 national broadcasts this season, including an ABC airing of Indiana's 2025 opener against regional rival Chicago on May 17th.

Elevating games to ESPN's flagship channel, Clark says, "really helps" grow the WNBA.

"As a competitor, these are the moments you live for, when the spotlight's on," Clark told reporters before Sunday's preseason clash. "We're on ESPN. This is a great opportunity for our team."

Welcome to another episode of Sports Are Fun!

Every week on Sports Are Fun!, co-hosts soccer legend Kelley O'Hara, sports journalist Greydy Diaz, and JWS intern BJ serve up their hottest takes on the biggest women's sports headlines.

This week, the Sports Are Fun! hosts get right into the week's biggest news: who wore what on the red carpet at Monday night's Met Gala.

And what better way to size up the women's sports athletes in attendance than to blind rank their Met Gala looks? Of course, O'Hara volunteered herself as tribute.

"I know nothing about what happened last night," says O'Hara, preparing to lay eyes on the celebrity guests for the very first time. "And I deleted Instagram from my social media because we wanted to be able to blind rank the 'fits of the athletes."

"What's cool about the Met Gala in years past?" she continues. "I feel like we're seeing more and more female athletes go onto the carpet and be included in the Met Gala, which is incredible."

"So the theme was Black tailoring through the years," says BJ, who actually worked the annual New York event as part of the floral team. "It's like representing and honoring Black artists, their fashion, and how they represent themselves.

"They had a couple videos come out of how sports athletes specifically also do that, how they represent with jerseys and in their clothes. It's kind of like their suit of armor."

"I love that. That's awesome," says O'Hara. "Should we get into the blind ranking? Let's do it."

In addition to gushing over the Met Gala, the crew dives into top-table NWSL shakeups, WNBA preseason action, what exactly is going on between Olivia Miles and Hannah Hidalgo, and so much more!

'Sports Are Fun!' can't get enough of Angel Reese at the Met Gala

The Sports Are Fun gang subsequently got right into it. As each photo filled the screen, O'Hara, Diaz, and BJ gave their hottest takes on the designers, the clothes, and the women's sports stars stealing the spotlight.

The first athlete to impress? Angel Reese.

"Ooh Angel Reese," says Diaz, marveling over the Chicago Sky star's black tuxedo-inspired outfit. "It's actually her birthday today and she has a game today. But her coach was very accepting and willing to allow her to go, which is super supportive."

"I'm kind of obsessed with this," says O'Hara.

"This is a Tom Brown ensemble," explains Diaz. "She's wearing a 107 carats of diamonds between all the jewelry she has on."

"I love this," says O'Hara. "It's a bit like men's fashion with the color, the broad shoulders. I love what I can see of the silhouette. Do you see these words that I'm using? I'm such a fashionista."

"I'm obsessed," she continues. "I don't want put it one because that'd be crazy... Okay, I'm going to put this two."

The rest of the list runs the gamut from gymnastics superstar Simone Biles to LSU guard Flau'jae Johnson to several members of the 2024 WNBA champion New York Liberty. Tune in to see who comes out on top and who's look was a bit of a flop.

About 'Sports Are Fun!' with Kelley O'Hara

'Sports Are Fun!' is a show that’ll remind you why you fell in love with women's sports in the first place.

Join World Cup champ, Olympic gold medalist, and aspiring barista Kelley O'Hara as she sits down with sports journalist Greydy Diaz and a revolving cast of co-hosts and friends. Together, they're talking the biggest, funnest, and most need-to-know stories in the world of women’s sports.

From on-court drama to off-field shenanigans, to candid (and silly) chats with the most important personalities in the space, this show screams "Sports Are Fun!"

Subscribe to Just Women's Sports on YouTube to never miss an episode.