Diane Gold has been a licensed physical therapist for more than 25 years and works with SD United as its physical therapist. She shares her professional advice with XKSD.

Physical therapist Diane Gold lets SD United's players know when to return from an injury.

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One of the most frequent questions I encounter from an injured athlete is: When can I start playing?  Often a physician, therapist and/or athletic trainer is treating the moderately to severely injured player who will progress them back to training and games appropriately.  But many athletes have minor injuries that don’t require a trip to the doctor. Very often, coaches have the injured player take a few days off and then hope that everything is OK. 

Today, I will outline three quick tests that coaches and parents can do to help assess if the athlete is ready to return to training after a lower-extremity injury.

1) The first test to perform on an athlete who wants to return to play after a minor injury is to have them “duck walk.” Have the player squat down, hips to heels, and take four or five steps in that position. This movement takes the ankles, knees and hips though a maximal range of flexion (bend).  If there is any residual swelling in any of those joints, the athlete will not be able to perform the movement without discomfort. 

2) Next, check the athlete’s  proprioception in the lower extremities by having them stand and balance on one leg with eyes closed for 30 seconds and compare the injured limb to the healthy one. The player should be able to balance equally well on either leg.  For a more in-depth discussion of the role of proprioception in sports, please refer to my earlier article on that topic.

3) Lastly, have them do a single-leg jump. This activity assesses the athlete’s muscular strength as well as their confidence in the leg.  Mark a spot for the player to stand behind.  Starting by balancing on their “good” leg, they jump forward as far as possible and land on that same leg.  They have to be able to “stick” the landing.  Mark where they land and repeat the test once or twice to have them get a good understanding of what they are doing.  Then have them repeat the activity with their injured leg.  If they can jump on their injured leg to within two to three inches of what they can do on their good leg, they pass that test. 

If the injured athlete can perform all three tests with ease, it should be safe for them to return to training. It is important that the player returns to training before playing in a match. I have encountered coaches who have injured players take time off and say they are “saving them” for the big game that weekend. This sets up the athlete to possibly incur a more serious injury since they were not allowed to test the injured area in a training session. My rule of thumb is that an athlete has to “make up” at least 50 percent of the training sessions missed due to injury before playing in a match. This allows the coach to assess if the athlete is truly ready for match conditions. 

With these simple tests, coaches and parents can more successfully assess an athlete’s readiness to return to soccer.  If the player is not able to pass these simple tests, then a more in-depth evaluation by a medical professional is warranted.