Integrative Approaches to Injury Risk, Rehabilitation, and Return-to-Sport in Athletic Populations

Sports physiotherapy has seen significant progress in recent years through the deployment of advanced assessment technologies and interventions aimed at injury prevention, rehabilitation, and return-to-sport readiness. Despite these advances, athletes continue to experience high rates of musculoskeletal injury and reinjury, highlighting the need for more comprehensive and individualized evaluation methods. An ongoing debate exists around how to best combine biomechanical, neuromuscular, neurophysiological, and tissue-level data to improve clinical decision making, with studies emphasizing both the promise and the complexity of integrating multimodal measures. Recent research has reported discrete improvements in risk profiling and functional outcome predictions by leveraging tools such as wearable sensors, ultrasound imaging, myotonometry, and neuroimaging, yet most clinical applications remain siloed within singular domains, limiting the ability to address the multifactorial nature of sports injury and recovery. There is a pressing gap in translating these laboratory-based findings into robust, scalable strategies that meaningfully enhance athlete management throughout the continuum of care.This Research Topic aims to unite diverse research efforts dedicated to multimodal assessment and targeted interventions within sports physiotherapy. In particular, it seeks to clarify how the integration of biomechanical, neuromuscular, neurophysiological, and tissue-level evaluations can deepen our understanding of injury mechanisms, guide individualized rehabilitation plans, and support more nuanced return-to-sport decision making. The goal is to showcase research that bridges the gap between complex data acquisition and practical, athlete-centered strategies—whether through methodological innovation, applied clinical studies, or the development of translational frameworks. By fostering dialogue and sharing evidence across assessment modalities, this topic aspires to strengthen the scientific foundation for personalizing care in athletic populations.Within the boundaries of athlete health, performance, and recovery optimization, this Research Topic invites submissions addressing either single or integrated assessment domains, provided their relevance to injury risk, rehabilitation, or return-to-sport is well articulated. The scope is not limited to studies employing all modalities concurrently; instead, it welcomes diverse methodological and applied research designs, including but not limited to observational studies, intervention trials, and translational proposals. To advance the field, we encourage contributions focused on the following themes:o Athlete-specific risk profiling strategies using emerging and established assessment toolso Designing and evaluating individualized rehabilitation interventions grounded in multimodal evidenceo Quantification and interpretation of clinically meaningful outcome measures across the injury-recovery-performance continuumo Application and validation of wearable technologies and real-world monitoring methods in sports settingso Translational frameworks bridging laboratory insights and everyday clinical practice for athlete management Topic editors: ELEFTHERIOS PARASKEVOPOULOS, Maria Papandreou Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80482/integrative-approaches-to-injury-risk-rehabilitation-and-return-to-sport-in-athletic-populations