Return to play is the last dot point for How is injury rehabilitation managed? and our last dot point for Sports Medicine. This is a very large dot point, covering lots of content and requiring critical thinking as you examine and evaluate various aspects.

It requires you to understand the indicators used by rehabilitation professions to determine if the athlete is ready to return to competition. You are required to understand how injury affects the athlete psychologically, which can be detrimental to performance and wellbeing if not addressed. You need to understand specific sports policies and procedures for returning to competition, as well as consider the ethical use of painkillers and other drugs related to rehabilitation. 

With this information you are required to evaluate tests that could be used to determine an athletes readiness to return to competition. And you must critically examine the policies and procedures around an athlete’s return to competition and be able to present answers to the questions above.

Students learn about:

• return to play
  • indicators of readiness for return to play (pain free, degree of mobility)
  • monitoring progress (pre-test and post-test)
  • psychological readiness
  • specific warm-up procedures
  • return to play policies and procedures
  • ethical considerations, eg pressure to participate, use of painkillers.

Students learn to:

• research and evaluate skill and other physical tests that could be used to indicate readiness to return to play

• critically examine policies and procedures that regulate the timing of return to play, considering questions such as:
  • why aren’t such policies applied to all sports?
  • who should have ultimate responsibility for deciding if an athlete returns to competition?
  • should athletes be allowed to use painkillers in order to compete when injured?