High quality rehabilitation to optimize return to sport following lateral meniscus surgery in football players.

There is a paucity of studies in the literature pertaining about how to guide rehabilitation and return to sport (RTS) progression for football players that have sustained a lateral meniscus injury and subsequent surgery. These patients are clinically challenging. If they return to sport too soon, before the rehabilitation process is completed and RTS criteria have been met, functional outcomes could be non-optimal and/or associated with higher reinjury risk. The aims of this paper are (I) to provide a brief overview of the current trends in acute lateral meniscus tears surgery in football players and (II) to suggest a framework for clinicians on how to progress the player following lateral meniscus surgery. Post-operative rehabilitation approaches are different for meniscus repair and for the other surgical techniques. The main goal of all involved practitioners should be to balance the "short term success" with the "long term protection" of the athlete's health. Specific key goals and interventions in early-, mid-, and late-stage rehabilitation are provided. The most important principle is to manage the progressive increase in loading through multiple measurements including frequent medical control consultations and functional tests detailing movement quantity and quality. RTS monitoring needs to be comprehensive and interdisciplinary, incorporating state of the art tests, to achieve recovery of sport-specific fitness, optimal movement quality and on-field rehabilitation progression.