Returning to sport after an ACL injury is often framed around a single construct: fear of reinjury. But what if fear doesn't tell the whole story?
In today's episode, Chelsea and Marquis speak with Cobie Starcevich about her team's qualitative evidence synthesis exploring how athletes experience and interpret reinjury concerns after ACL injury.
The team's findings suggest that what clinicians commonly label as "fear of reinjury" is actually a much broader, nuanced experience encompassing altered beliefs, assessments of threat, behavioral and cognitive coping strategies, physiological sensations, and concerns about the future.
Cobie explains what the findings mean for clinicians, and how clinicians can move beyond fear and into exploring the multidimensional experiences of injury with patients.
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RESOURCES
Qualitative evidence synthesis of athletes' experience and interpretation of reinjury concerns after ACL injury: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2026.13852