Recovery · January 2026 · 5 min read
Fear of reinjury can contribute to further injury
By Robert B. Andrews, MA, LMFT
For many injured athletes, coming back from a severe sports-related injury can be a terrifying ordeal. Their doctor and PT have cleared them, but they experience fear of suffering another injury. This fear can be debilitating.
Many suffer from confusion, anxiety, anger, shame, fear, and guilt. Why do they feel so bad if their doctor and PT cleared them to play? Many feel something is wrong with them if they don't come back confident and in a reasonable frame of mind.
Cleared physically is not cleared mentally
Physical clearance is a baseline, not a finish line. The nervous system holds onto the memory of the injury. When the athlete returns to the situations, surfaces, or movements where the injury happened, the limbic system fires before the conscious mind can catch up. The result is hesitation, guarding, and altered mechanics, exactly the conditions that produce reinjury.
What the work looks like
We help athletes process the original injury experience using imagery and EMDR protocols, rebuild confidence in the injured area through graded exposure, and install pre-performance routines that down-regulate arousal at the moment of contact. Most athletes feel a meaningful shift within four to six sessions.
If you're physically cleared but still hesitating, that's not weakness. It's information. Listen to it, and then do the work to clear the mental side too.
