The #1 Question injured athletes ask

How long before I can play again?

There is no question that the psyche of athletes is different to that of the average person. It takes a certain type of person to want to get back, as fast as possible, to the activity that injured them in the first place!

Don't get me wrong, most people want to recover from injury as soon as possible and as treating therapists, its our responsibility to give them a realistic expectation of the process and timeframe of recovery.

It's just that some athletes are fixated on returning to play in the shortest possible time. 

If an injured athlete has a deadline like a Grand Final or Representative Test, time is the only thing on their mind. If they are prepared to do the physical work, and push through the mental barrier of pain and fatigue, why not give them the opportunity to try. 

Successful injury treatment protocols require timely movement through three distinct phases, Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconditioning. In my experience it is ok to let some athletes try to push the boundaries of standard protocol if they are clear on each physical goal that must be reached before they can move forward to the next.

Injury management is about milestones. Every type of injury has a treatment protocol and an expected recovery time-frame. This begins with an accurate diagnosis - on-field acute injury observation and assessment , post-game re-assessment and sometimes (but not always) medical investigations to confirm diagnostic suspicion.

Once the severity of the injury has been confirmed, a rehabilitation plan must be devised that gives the athlete realistic expectations of the chronological benchmarks that need to be met for them to return to play.

The key to this process is knowing what the physical milestones are. It's the difference between a successful Sports Physiotherapist and an average one, and it comes from experience.

If you want to successfully treat sports injuries, get out of the Clinic! Be involved in as many sporting events as you can. Watch the games, get a feel for the environment that injuries occur in, build confidence in managing acute injuries on field, understand the psyche of athletes, Ask questions, watch others, assess and reassess, over and over.

Build your own personal knowledge-base of experiences to draw on when an injury doesn't respond to 'standard protocol' and build the confidence to challenge conventions if your experience tells you it will improve the outcomes of your patients.