MAKING REHABILITATION MEASURABLE, PROGRESSIVE AND UNDERSTANDABLE
Successful rehabilitation requires more than waiting for symptoms to disappear or completing a predefined sequence of exercises. It requires understanding how the athlete is adapting and using objective information to determine when and how the rehabilitation process should progress.
This workshop presents a scientific and criteria-based approach to football rehabilitation. The focus is on monitoring neuromuscular and musculoskeletal adaptations over time, establishing meaningful progression criteria and integrating strength, running and football-specific demands throughout the rehabilitation pathway.
Practical examples from ACL and hamstring injuries will demonstrate how objective assessment can support decision-making from the early stages of rehabilitation through return to competition.
The workshop will cover:
• Building a Criteria-Based Football Rehabilitation Frameworks
Monitoring Strength, Neuromuscular Function and Recovery
Selecting Meaningful Test and Performance Markers
Progressive Loading, Strength and Power Development
Running Reintroduction and Movement Progression
Return-to-Train, Return-to-Performance and Return-to-Competition
Progressing from return to train to the restoration of key performance benchmarks before return to competition
Practical Case Applications
ACL Rehabilitation
The ACL case will explore how strength, neuromuscular function, running capacity and football-specific demands can be progressively restored and objectively monitored throughout rehabilitation
Hamstring Rehabilitation
The hamstring case will examine progressive loading, strength development, running exposure and the reintroduction of high-speed and sprint demands before return to competition
Learning Objectives
✓ Develop a structured and criteria-based rehabilitation process
✓ Select objective measures to monitor rehabilitation progress
✓ Track neuromuscular and musculoskeletal adaptations throughout rehabilitation
✓ Establish meaningful criteria for progression and return-to-sport decision-making
✓ Understand how strength and running exposure should be progressed throughout rehabilitation
✓ Identify the physical requirements that should be restored before return to football
✓ Integrate objective data with clinical reasoning and practical decision-making
✓ Provide athletes with clear, measurable and progressive rehabilitation goals