Pediatric and Adolescent Sports Medicine: Bridging the Gap Between Injury Prevention and Safe Return to Play

Sports participation during childhood and adolescence offers significant physical, psychological, and social benefits. However, it is accompanied by a considerable burden of musculoskeletal issues, spanning acute injuries and gradually emerging overuse conditions. Young athletes are uniquely vulnerable due to periods of rapid growth and maturation, changing biomechanics, and the demands of diverse or specialized sports participation. Variations in training volume, intensity, and recovery further influence outcomes, sometimes resulting in transient symptoms, recurrent pain, loss of sporting participation, or persistent musculoskeletal problems that may impact long term health and well-being. Notably, the interplay of these factors with emerging concerns, such as relative energy deficiency in sport, can further complicate risk profiles and management strategies for this population.This Research Topic aims to integrate and showcase multidisciplinary advances in the prevention, early detection, and individualized management of both acute and overuse injuries in pediatric and adolescent athletes. By uniting perspectives from sports medicine, orthopedics, physiotherapy, nutrition, psychology, coaching, and public health, the collection seeks to clarify best practices for assessment, risk stratification, and clinical decision making around safe return to play. Crucially, the goal is to highlight innovative tools and approaches that support objective functional evaluation, contextual performance benchmarks, criteria-based rehabilitation, and monitoring of athlete health factors such as training load, bone health, and nutrition-related risks. Contributions should also address how modern multidisciplinary and shared decision-making frameworks can be implemented in diverse settings, from schools and community clubs to elite youth programs.This Research Topic encompasses a broad range of issues affecting the musculoskeletal health and safe participation of young athletes, but does not focus on acute trauma management, surgical techniques, or complex fracture care. Instead, it emphasises prevention, overuse injury, progression through rehabilitation, and interdisciplinary support for energy and health problems encountered by developing athletes. To gather comprehensive perspectives, we welcome articles including, but not limited to:• Injury prevention strategies across sports and settings for pediatric and adolescent athletes• Patterns, mechanisms, and longitudinal progression of overuse injuries such as apophyseal injuries, bone stress injury, tendinopathy, and chronic pain syndromes• Training load, recovery, sleep, and psychosocial stressors as determinants of injury risk and return to play outcomes• Functional testing, movement analysis, and developmentally appropriate performance benchmarks• Criteria-based rehabilitation, shared decision making, and practical return to play frameworks involving families and coaches• Sex and maturation related differences in injury patterns, recovery, and reinjury risk• Relative energy deficiency in sport, low energy availability, menstrual health, and bone health: screening, assessment, and multidisciplinary management• Implementation, equity, and access to prevention and return to play resources in school and community sports settingsWe welcome a range of article types, including original research, clinical trials, reviews, systematic reviews and meta analyses, brief reports, case reports, and study protocols. Topic editors: Constantin Mayer, Fabrizio Di Maria Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85769/pediatric-and-adolescent-sports-medicine-bridging-the-gap-between-injury-prevention-and-safe-return-to-play