Ballon D'Or winner and Barcelona captain Alexia Putellas has ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament on the eve of the 2022 Women's European Championships.
Putellas, who last week became the first woman to record 100 caps for Spain, suffered the injury in her final training session on Tuesday, just over 24 hours before the start of the tournament.
She was immediately flown to King Edward VII's hospital in London where scans confirmed a tear in her left knee, the Spanish Football Federation confirmed early on Wednesday morning.
It is an incalculable blow for Spain, which was widely expected to claim its first Euros title this year, as well as for Putellas's club Barcelona, which reached its second consecutive Champions League final this year with Putellas at the heart of its midfield.
In addition to her Ballon D'Or win, the 28-year-old was also named FIFA's Best Women's Player of the Year following her dazzling season with the Spanish giants, finishing as top-scorer in the Champions League with 11 goals on top of the 18 she scored in the league to help Barcelona win their third consecutive title.
Putellas is the face of women's football in Spain, featuring in both of Barcelona's matches that broke global attendance records.
She is the latest high-profile woman footballer to suffer a serious knee injury, following on from Matildas and Lyon right-back Ellie Carpenter in May and Spanish record goal-scorer Jennifer Hermoso, who suffered sprained knee ligaments last month.
Putellas has been instrumental in Spain's rise up the ranks, with a study released in February by FIFPro — football's global players' union — finding she had played the highest number of match minutes of any other woman player in the world for club and country over the past three years.
Research into ACL injuries in women footballers is still evolving, with more recent studies suggesting there could be a connection between the disproportionate number of ACL tears suffered by women athletes and their gendered environmental contexts.
However, more data is needed to form stronger correlations between "overloading" — or the high-intensity physical loads placed on women players' bodies, almost all of whom have only emerged into full-time professionalism in recent years — and subsequent knee injuries.
Putellas will be replaced by Real Sociedad striker Amaiur Sarriegi as the Spaniards kick off their Euros campaign against Finland on Saturday morning.
