Karen Pond was at the launch
I recently, through MyArsenal Rewards, won tickets to watch the first three episodes of an Arsenal produced documentary, Step by Step at an event at Screen on the Green, Islington. The documentary is in 5 parts and chronicles Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedama’s journey following their ACL injuries in November and December 2022.
Gary Lewin features a lot in the series as he explains how the ligaments in the knee are structured. He also says that Arsenal is not the only club to suffer several of these awful injuries at the same time, as other Clubs have four of more players out with the injury – and worryingly there are quite a few academy aged girls who are suffering this injury. Gary, along with several top medics are trying to research into why this injury is so common in this game.
The episodes I’ve seen so far shows their injuries occurring and the women speak of how they felt and the support they received not only from each other but by their teammates and everyone at the Club. We see how they feel as their knees begin to heal and how after four months of treatment, Beth finally puts a pair of boots on an runs a straight line to applause from her team mates who are also on the training pitch. It also shows how when Laura Wienroither, who was also at the premiere, sadly suffered the same injury she moved in with Viv and Beth rather than trying to cope on her own.
At the end of the 3 episodes there was a brief Q&A hosted by Nicole Holliday which was interesting and gave a bit more insight. Gary Lewin said that the strong bond amongst the players had helped with the players recovery and that they continue to carry out research and whilst the injury will never disappear completely he hopes that in 10 years time its slightly less frequent. Probably the most amusing question was, had Myle (Beth’s puppy) met Win yet? The answer being that she had been to the training ground!
I highly recommend watching Step by Step and am looking forward to watching episodes 4 and 5 when they drop on Arsenal.com later this week.
You can see the videos on arsenal.com
Karen Pond December 2023