The world’s #1 women’s tennis player, Justine Henin, tossed her racket in her bag for the last time professionally, retiring immediately with a week before the French Open. We can think of numerous reasons to avoid France, but this is rather extreme.

(And now there is.)

While some may choose to speculate about a Hingis-esque retirement party or a Jordan-like trip to field hockey, we prefer to compare it to yesterday’s news that Annika Sorenstam will be stepping out in her relative prime as well. We believe we’ve tracked down the reason for both women to bail on their respective sports at such an odd time.

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE reported over the weekend that girls’ soccer players have a greatly increased risk of injury, with the dreaded ACL tear lurking around every turn. Women’s basketball players have managed to lessen their ACL risks over the last decade or so, but the dangers remain.

We can only assume that women in sports just received the memo and are bailing from the sport as quickly as possible to protect their bodies from sudden harm. If the new WUSA shuts down in a month and the WNBA collapses in a heap before the end of this season, we’ll only have THE NEW YORK TIMES to blame for ruining women’s sports forever. Damn you, Grey Lady!