The dreaded knee ligament injury had previously put stars like Erin Phillips, Brianna Davey and Chelsea Randall out for full seasons.

But the latest AFLW injury report found the incidence of ACL injuries that saw players miss at least one match was 3.22 injuries per 1000 player hours in the 2021 AFLW season, well down on 8.83 in 2020 and 5.14 in 2019.

"The education of coaches, players and support staff is critical to ensure we best-protect and prevent injuries amongst AFLW footballers," AFLW boss Nicole Livingstone said.

"We will continue to support research and implement best practice injury prevention programs across all levels of women's football, including the Prep-to-Play program.

"The AFL Female Football Prep-to-Play national injury prevention program is science-based and aims to provide resources to support football coaches and female players enhance their performance while reducing the risk of injury.

"The program has been a key resource for football communities from the grassroots to the elite to implement in their training programs and we will continue to work with La Trobe University to research ways in which we can decrease the incidence and prevalence of knee injuries in women's football."

Concussion incidence, where a player missed at least one match as a result, grew from 4.76 per 1000 player hours in 2020 to 8.27 in 2021.

Concussions also had the highest incidence of all the injury categories.

Livingstone said the increased number of games missed through concussion was due to stricter protocols, whereby players couldn't play until at least 12 days after suffering one.

Leg and foot injuries also increased on 2020, while the overall injury incidence for the 2021 season was 11.1 injuries per club, compared to 7.0 in 2020 and 6.8 in 2019, with 36.7 matches missed per club.

That equated to 38.3 injuries per 1000 player hours, an increase on previous seasons, which the league attributed to the growing number of games.

Australian Associated Press