Return-to-Play Criteria Following a Hamstring Injury in Professional Soccer: Time for a Tailor-Made Approach

There is a need to improve how we look at RTP criteria for hamstring injuries to improve decision making and help practitioners design the most suitable RTP protocols. We should consider the anatomical structure and the complexity of the injury to determine the importance of lay-off time and healing, understand the implication of the location of injury and the muscle involved on strength-test selection, and knowledge of the mechanism of injury and workload before the injury to assess the ability to activate the muscles in a sport- and mechanism-specific position and prepare the athlete with an appropriate exposure to high-speed running and technical skills.