After combating the transgender opponent, female Dutch rugby star suffers a carned threatening injury: “How was that allowed?” | International sports news

Rugby is known for his physicality and a high risk of injury, but for 20-year-olds Elena KingThe pain she experienced in January was different from everything she had ever faced. In a match in the Dutch Premiership, King suffered a devastating injury that she left behind with lifelong pain and a lengthy recess. The cause? A brutal tackle of her transgender opponent Ashley Mooney, whose strength, claims King, has exceeded what a Cisgend woman could practice on the field. The incident occurred during a game against Breda Dame Rugby Club, and the result was nothing less than shocking: King's knee was torn apart so that it was left with a broken ACL and MCL. In months of rehabilitation, she forced this injury to only regain basic mobility. “I felt the strength used against me: it is nothing that I can explain because I don't have this strength myself,” said King in an interview with me The times. “An CIS woman couldn't have pulled my leg out of the socket … I heard a really loud pop. Then I started screaming. My leg burned.” Her agony didn't end there. The consequences of the tackle did not allow them to connect to their knees at all, and no longer felt part of their body. “I knew it was serious, I didn't feel connected to my knee at all,” she continued. “Later I would find out that my nerves were dead because the ligaments were completely torn apart. I understood that yesterday was far too far away and wouldn't look the same tomorrow.” The tackle, which appeared as a mouth, formed with Mooney to push her shoulder into the king's knee, and let her leg bend as it could not be seen. “The trans player came in from the left and my knee doesn't bow,” King recalled. “So the trans players pushed their shoulders into my knee and pulled their arms closer to themselves with immense strength.” The result was the sound of a “massive” popping “sound, followed by agonizing pain.” The trans player had pulled my pretty little knee out of his socket and broke my MCL and ACL in a single movement. “ The mere force that is involved in the tackle is something with which king tried to deal. “It was a kind of strength that I only felt in my youth when I played with the older boys. The kind of strength with which women cannot keep up. Women do not have this strength,” she said. Her injury was not the first time that Mooney had said concerns. King had been worried before the game and remembered an earlier game in which Mooney supposedly caused black eyes, rib and spine injuries. One of the teammates of King was even reduced to tears according to a rough challenge by Mooney. When the Dutch Rugby Union was alerted to these incidents, King said that her answer was repellent: “It's okay.” This lack of action by the Dutch Rugby Association (NRB) is something that King is difficult to accept. In an open moment of thinking, she said: “I cannot understand how the Dutch Rugby Association can enable biological men to play in the rugby of women. A contact sport where injuries are more likely to occur.” After the injury, Mooney was initially suspended and lacked four games. However, she returned to the campaign in May and was appointed player of the game in her first appearance. King, who is still recovering from her devastating injury, is horrified by the fact that her opponent can play again so soon. “I cannot make peace that felt like an attack on my body. I cannot make peace with the knowledge if the Dutch Rugby Association had protected my security by not allowed transgender to the women's competition, I would not have pulled my pretty little knee out of its socket.” After the injury, King is now looking for legal advice and hopes to draw attention to what in her opinion is a security problem for women in rugby. She also advised herself with other players who had similar challenges because the controversy about transgender athletes in women's sport becomes louder. “Security should come first,” she claims. “Women want the best for everyone: We want everyone to feel enclosed, but then they actually see the reasons why it is not possible. We have women's rooms for a certain reason.” The Dutch Rugby Association has prompted King's emergency to take on a discussion on this topic. On May 9, a “group of experts” was set up to check whether changes to transgender athletes are required. However, king remains skeptical. “I came from this meeting incredibly disappointed,” she said. “It was clear to me that the Dutch Rugby Association did not want to have anything to do with this problem. They put it in safety in our sport.” The controversy has also pointed a light on the growing gap within the Rugby world. In 2020, World Rugby was the first International Sports Association, the trans women from participating in Elite and International Sport. This decision was repeated by the Rugby Football League and the Rugby Football Union in 2022, which implemented a flat -rate ban on the transgender player in women's rugby. From 2023 this ban will extend in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Despite these international steps, the Dutch Rugby Association has not yet determined a formal guideline for the participation of the transgender, so that many can question their priorities when it comes to the safety of the players. For King, the injury is more than just a personal setback. It is a symbol of the challenges that women stand in sports, since the problem of inclusion continues to dominate the conversation. “This is about security,” she emphasizes. “Recording is important, but security must come first.”