Yep, that's why I said "Almost 8", not "8".
2018 - "As many as 25% of athletes suffer a repeated ACL tear and up to 55% of those who suffer an initial tear never return to their previous level of play "
I can't see any specifics on this one at all. Just says "athletes". They're probably in the sources she used, but unfortunately I don't have access to those.
2020 - Despite ongoing research and advancements in treatment regimens for ACL injuries over the past decades, the goal of restored knee function and preserved long-term knee-related health remains a challenge.
Re-injury rates are high,
final assessment should be withheld until
2 years postoperatively since a substantial number of outcomes require that
this time has been given for the ACL reconstruction to completely heal
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00167-020-06061-x
The first study your quote references references 17-19 year olds, and appears to confirm my original curiosity, at least in part:
"The high rate of subsequent ACL injury in younger patients was confirmed. Early graft ruptures were more prevalent in patients who underwent surgery when they were younger than 18 years versus those in the 18- to 19-year age group."
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27390346/
The second is a lit review, but it's closer to relevant, as it includes athletes between 19 and 25.
Combining these risk factors, athletes younger than 25 years who return to sport have a secondary ACL injury rate of 23%.
I also wonder how many of these studies are skewed by the actual sport being played. Artificial turf, I'm fairly certain, has a higher incidence of ACL injury than natural grass - for example.
As I said originally, I'm just curious of the rate on people actually in a similar boat to NRL players. There's not too many 17 year olds busting knees on fake grass in the NRL.
Thanks for going to the trouble of finding those sources though. It's an interesting discussion.