Return to play readiness check

This tool gives you a first read, not a clearance. Answer six honest questions about the body part that worries you and it hands back a red, amber, or green readout with next steps, using the same conservative criteria as the stoplight guides. What it cannot do is examine you, image you, or overrule a physician, and it never will. Injury basics live in the complete injury guide.

How the readout works

Methods note, in plain language: red-flag answers always win, whatever the rest of the form says. Beyond that, the tool counts your yes answers and scores conservatively on purpose: several yes answers point red, a couple point amber, and green requires both a quiet symptom picture and enough days since the injury for that area, using conservative floors framed as general guidance. The criteria echo the matching stoplight guide for your area, so the tool and the guides never disagree.

Why conservative? Because the two errors are not equal. A tool that holds you in amber a week longer than necessary costs you a few games; a tool that waves you into green a week early can cost you a season. When a screen must err, it errs toward the cheaper mistake, and the days floors exist for the same reason: quiet symptoms on day three of an ankle sprain describe day three, not readiness.

Retake it weekly rather than daily. Bodies change on a weekly clock, and the readout is most useful as a trend: amber that keeps its reasons is a plateau worth examining, and amber whose reasons shrink is a recovery on schedule.

What to do with your color

Red means today is for evaluation, not games. Read your area's guide to see why the red criteria exist, and use the red-flag list below to decide between emergency care and a prompt clinic visit.

Amber means modified play: your area's guide spells out the exact yes-list and no-list, the session caps, and the markers that earn the next stage. Most recovering players live here, and living here well is what makes green arrive on schedule.

Green means the screen found nothing alarming, which is a first read, not a diploma. Structure the first weeks anyway, doubles first, short sessions, honest next-morning reviews, and keep the setback rules from your guide standing guard.