Pain-free is not the same as ready. Use this to check strength, hop tests, movement, confidence and training load before you go back. Print it, take it to your physio, or hand it to your coach.
Go through the six areas as a prompt for the right questions. If any area looks like a gap, talk to your physio, surgeon or doctor before you go back, whatever the calendar says.
General information only. This checklist is an educational tool, not a medical assessment, test or clearance, and it cannot tell you whether you are ready to return to sport. The reference points are commonly used in research and practice, not pass marks, and they vary with the injury, the sport, your age and the plan from your surgeon or treating clinician. Talk to your doctor, surgeon or physio before returning from any significant injury.
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The baseline. If these are not settled, nothing below matters yet.
Measured with a device or a repeatable test is more reliable than judging by eye or by feel.
Compare every result with the other leg as a percentage. That figure is the limb symmetry index.
Sport is reactive and played tired. A test done fresh and planned does not show you that.
Fear of re-injury is a risk factor in its own right, even when the body tests well.
Return is a process over weeks, not a single day. This is the part most people skip.
General information only. This checklist is an educational tool, not a medical assessment, test or clearance, and it cannot tell you whether you are ready to return to sport. The reference points are commonly used in research and practice, not pass marks, and they vary with the injury, the sport, your age and the plan from your surgeon or treating clinician. Talk to your doctor, surgeon or physio before returning from any significant injury.
Sharp pain, swelling that returns, the area giving way, pain that wakes you at night, or movement that gets worse as you tire. Dial the intensity back and get it looked at before the next session.
After a fall or a hard knock, if you cannot put weight on the leg, go to hospital.
I spent three years as an AFL trainer and seven years as a physio in semi-professional football. In those rooms, going back was decided against numbers you could measure, not against a date or how someone said they felt.
This checklist is that idea, simplified. The longer version is in cleared to play, too early?
A return-to-sport assessment looks at all six areas for your injury and your sport.