‘We felt it was important to share our journey’ 🙌 | Mead and Miedema reflect on ACL injury recovery

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Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema talk about their documentary, Step by Step, which follows their recoveries from their respective knee injuries.

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Viv Beth thank you very much for joining us here at the Arsenal training ground I mean did a lot of filming over the last 12 months or so a lot of recovering a lot of Rehabilitation let’s just talk us through the documentary and the reasons behind why eth you first that you wanted

To do something like that yeah I think we um felt important to kind of share our journey um make everyone a little bit more aware of what that Journey looks like um if we could kind of figure out a little bit to why it’s happening or factors that go towards it happening or

Is there anything that we can do within the game uh to prevent it or at least minimize the risk of ACL injuries obviously there’s been quite a pandemic at the moment of in this uh specific injury so I think we ow it and I think Viv said it earlier today that

We AIT to the Next Generation to try and figure out a better solution a better plan that can minimize the risk of this nasty and not the nicest injury I think the one thing that blew my mind VI was in the documentary you were talking about how when boys join academ is eight

Years old the strength and conditioning that side of football is there and available to them as far as the girls are concerned inmy that doesn’t come to around about 18 that’s that’s nine years difference I mean obviously yeah we discussed that like it could be one of

The reasons that plays into um a lot of women doing the ACL but I also think if you if you look at our generation like I started playing professional when I was 15 um in 2010 at that moment played national team from 2013 so although I was still really really young I already

Play at a professional level um I think as Beth just said like one of the reasons that we wanted to do this documentary is to make sure that the Next Generation isn’t going to be scared of doing their ACL is going to get the help they need um and part of that is

Youthmy and I think a women’s football that is probably the next big step that we need to make because we need to get the like the girls ready to come into professional football and yeah so far that’s obviously not been a priority but I think that should be on top of the

List right now I would say almost every season you’ve seen an ACL happening around you um I think it’s always something in the back of your mind that you know is happening in woman’s football it’s happening in football in in any sport really so yeah you are at

The risk of having an iny but I have never thought about actually doing my ACL myself you said when you did yours you knew you’d done it straight away I think you were trying to convince yourself that you hadn’t so what was the reaction when you realized what you had

Done yeah obviously when I did it I had the pain not one I was ever used to before but I think it lasted 30 seconds to a minute and then I obviously walked off and thought oh it doesn’t feel too bad not like too unstable or nothing

Like that and me being the positive person that I am still was like oh maybe I’ve got away with it maybe it’s not the dreaded ACL got the scan the next uh 20 minutes literally after my um scan got told yeah ACL um rupture so I hadn’t got

Away with it even though yeah I can understand I think that’s from a perspective of doing it now and experiencing it why people come back on the pitch because I was off the pitch so the sub was made so that was taken away from me but I think if I was on the

Pitch and had the time to think about it and settle I may have come back on and done more damage to it the interview that you did when you did your ACL and you were sitting in the medical room on the bed just a pair of you together sort

Of probably looking around a room and and it was just like what the hell have we done here and I think the words were putting it politely we’ve both messed up was that just the immediate emotion of it all when when you did yours yeah I

Think it was a bit of disbelief to be honest like obviously I’d been taken care of B about 2 weeks after surgery um and yeah just heading into the game you were like it’s almost winter break going to drive home B home for Christmas um just need to get through tonight really

That obviously didn’t end up that well but um I think com I’m back in a changing room like we were sitting there obviously waiting for the game to be finished and then yeah we were just sitting there all the girls came in and they just kept walking past us crying

And it was very emotional I think no one could have really written what happened to us but um yeah it it’s difficult cuz your initial reaction on the pitch is like I’m going to miss a World Cup I’m going to miss the rest of the season um and then eventually obviously after you

Get your skin that’s when you start processing this is what’s going to come and you Beth had so much going in your life at that time away from football as well how much of a distraction maybe what happened to you for that moment just took it away considering what your

Mother was going through at that time as well yeah that’s always always been my perspective and I think no it wasn’t nice to do myal yes I had the job that I love taking away from me for an extended thing time but my perspective straight away I always

Believe things happen for a reason and maybe this was meant to happen it didn’t need to be a 9mon injury of course but um it gave me some special time with my mom and perspective is I will and I have come back from this injury what my mom

Have she couldn’t come back from so perspective wise I think what we’ve had is nothing in comparison to what some people are going through and I think that’s a story that that that comes through in what happened to the two of you because well obviously you were

Dealing with it as well being being best girlfriend obviously like you you’re kind of part of the family um I think especially once be on her ACL I felt really responsible for taking care of Beth and being able to bring her home as much as I could um after you had done

Your your speed roll over her home straight away that weekend to spend a bit of time with her mom and then obviously the plan was for for me to stay fit and to yeah to drive her home for Christmas um but yeah as as Beth

Said um I decided to do it as well and at least we got to spend a lot of time together so um yeah it happened and I think looking back on everything like we’re very grateful that I could be there for you and that she had that time

At home to spend with her mom in a way did you have a reset moment the pair of you from the moment I wasn’t allowed to do what I did anymore I love football my happy PA away from family is playing football and doing what I love doing and

I had that taken away from me in that time as well and I really struggled with that um like when I’m angry or when I’m sad I can go on the pitch and forget about all that for the training session or whatever it may be

And yeah I love the game like I did when I was a six-year-old girl um um but I do think I I needed that break in in not playing a bit more than Beth did um obviously she had the best summer of her life in 2022 I picked up Co straight

After the first game at the Euro so I think the lead up to me getting injured and and missing that bit of football like hasn’t been as straightforward as be had been and um obviously again like I’m a month behind now when it comes to to getting back to Fitness and you do

Start appreciating different things and um I think in the end like it’s just been a learning process for the both of us really I mean obviously like we’ve both had completely different injuries and surgeries uh to one another and I think the thing that obviously which I

Really struggled with is I had my surgery the sixth of January and then that same night on the sth like best monom passed away so instead of me actually being able to focus on me recovering it wasn’t about me or my body at all like it was more about being

There for B and obviously going up to with be could after so I think that first instance the first to8 weeks of recovery for me very much different to be and yeah as she said like I had to have a second surgery in in August and yeah it

Was just very different but I think not just us too but I think with all the ACL girls like we we’ve done so well to keep each other positive and and to help each other out and and that sometimes means that we’re giv tips other times it just

Means that we could cry all together or we could celebrate great things together and I think um that’s been really special throughout our rehab process really I think for us the most beautiful thing about it was that anytime we needed anything uh everyone would be

Ready to help us out and um I think in the end I gave everyone a bit of extra motivation like okay we’ve got girls sitting in the stands that really want to be on the pitch with us but they can so let’s go for them and um yeah it’s

Definitely brought the team closer together I’m not saying that we need to go through this again because we don’t no but nobody wants that exactly but no it has been very special and I mean I think we always say that in every single thing that we do in few we give that

We’re just really thankful to all the girls standing by us throughout this period of time in a crazy way were there any fun bits to come out of it was were there any sort of the I know sense of humor gets tested in these situations but were there any lighter moments we’ve

Had chance to go away um a little bit more than we would have um when playing football and we got chance to go with our families so viv’s brother and his partner my brother and his partner and my dad as well and we had a holiday together and not often would we get

Chance to do that and the timings would never be right so it wasn’t all doom and gloom the silliest moment if there wasn’t the the silliest moment or was there a list of silly moments we looking at I know we’ve been hanging about with Lara a lot she yeah Lara’s very clumsy

So she has always kept us entertained to yeah we’ve not been bored I mean maybe both has but I haven’t um we’ve kept ourselves busy like even in summer like obviously to have a distraction from the World Cup and everything we’ve been to Wimbledon you’ve been to the so yeah

It’s it’s been it’s been nice to be able to do other things um Beth b thanks very much