“Can I go back to playing [insert sport or activity] yet?”

In physiotherapy and sports medicine, this is one of the most common questions we get asked. And at it’s most fundamental, it’s a question about risk to benefit.

The athlete wants to go back the the activity she enjoys. She wants to hit the field, return to sport and get back to her team.

Unfortunately the answer to that question, as always, is: it depends.

It’s very seldom a straight yes or no. There are often many individual and situational variables to consider when assessing risk to benefit for return to sport or activity.

These include:

• What type of injury did the athlete suffer?
• What was the severity of the injury?
• How long has she been injured and how is the injury progressing?
• How long has she been doing her injury rehabilitation?
• What type of rehab has she been doing? Is it passive? Active? Both?
• What type of sport does she participate in?
• What level does she play at?
• What intensity will she be going back?
• Is her fitness level adequate or has the layoff led to a loss of sport conditioning?
• Can she gradually ramp back up to normal levels? Or will she be going back in all out, right away?

These are just a few of some of the questions that should be taken into consideration for safe return to sport – a return where risk to benefit is  heavily skewed towards the benefit side of the equation.

Any physiotherapist or sports medicine practitioner who has been involved in the industry for any length of time will have learned early on that many athletes will return to sport with or without our blessings. This is often more prevalent in a competitive realm where being seen or performing consistently may have an impact on future opportunities (e.g. playing in front of college or university scouts, rep team tryouts etc).

So then the important part comes down to making sure that our athlete is clearly informed about what becomes the biggest consideration for a safer return to activity: risk to benefit.

Is the risk of returning to sport early worth the potential benefit?

One of the biggest educational items we work on with our athletes is to let them know the major possible risks and let them compare those risks to the potential benefits of returning to sport.

It’s that same risk to benefit consideration that keeps popping up.

Having knowledge of her particular risk to benefit ratio will give the athlete the power to make the informed decision for herself as to whether or not the risks of returning to play (e.g. re-injury) are worth the benefits (e.g. exposure in front of scouts).

Or if it would be a better option for her to hold off for a little while longer until her risk drops and the benefit increases.

If you’ve been injured and you’re wondering if the risk to benefit in your specific case is worth it, get in touch with us. We can help you make an informed decision.