How do you know you're ready to return to sport?

Why pain-free is not the same as ready

Pain is often the first thing to settle after an injury. Strength, balance and quick control usually take longer to come back.

That gap is where re-injury happens. You feel fine, so you go back to full training, and the part of your body that was never retested lets you down.

What a physiotherapist checks before clearing you

A proper check looks at strength on both sides, balance, and how the body controls movement under load, not just whether it hurts.

We also look at confidence. Hesitating on a movement is often a sign the body is still protecting itself, even without pain.

Building a safe return, step by step

A safe return usually moves through stages: controlled movement, then load, then the speed and unpredictability of real sport.

Each stage is checked before adding the next. If something does not hold up, we slow down rather than push through it.

When timelines and events get in the way

Real life has deadlines: a season, a competition, a deadline you cannot move. We would rather know this upfront.

From there, we build the safest plan the timeline allows, and tell you if something is not realistic rather than promising it will be fine.

Why the same plan doesn’t fit everyone

Two people with a similar injury can need different timelines, depending on how they heal, how demanding their sport is, and how their body responds to loading.

That is why we assess you directly rather than applying a generic return-to-sport programme, and adjust the plan as you progress.