Oct 21 (Reuters) – Bayern Munich midfielder Lena Oberdorf faces several months on the sidelines after she tore the cruciate ligament in her right knee for the second time in 15 months, the club said. The 23-year-old Germany international sustained a serious injury to the same knee in a European Championship qualifier against Austria in July last year, a setback that ruled her out of the Paris Olympics. Oberdorf returned last month before suffering a fresh blow during Bayern's 5-1 home win over Koln on Sunday. She will undergo surgery on Tuesday. "This news hits us all very hard and we feel for Lena," Bianca Rech, Bayern's director of women's football, said in a statement on Monday. "She worked tirelessly and with great desire to come back after her first injury. To now face a second such setback is incredibly hard." Studies have shown that female footballers are significantly more prone to cruciate ligament injuries compared to their male counterparts, with women up to eight times more likely to suffer such setbacks. ($1 = 0.7451 pounds) (Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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