The time of return to sport following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is a commonly discussed topic within clinical settings and the sports medicine literature. Emerging science has demonstrated protective effects of delaying the time of sport clearance on athlete reinjury. Though a single time cutoff is unlikely to be applicable for all athletes, large inconsistencies in the time of return to sport clearance are present in both the literature and within prescribed clinical protocols. A multitude of patient factors, such as perceived function, objective function, confidence, post-operative goals, among others, are vital for how athletes are progressed and released for sport participation. This Current Opinion article is constructed to discuss the time to return to sport after ACL reconstruction—factors that may influence timing decisions, how time is assessed within the scientific literature—and to promote discussion on this common topic within the sports medicine and athletic communities. The aim of the article is not to establish defined clinical time cutoffs for this population.

前十字韧带 (ACL) 重建后恢复运动的时间是临床环境和运动医学文献中经常讨论的话题。新兴科学已经证明，延迟运动间隙时间对运动员再受伤有保护作用。尽管单一时间截止不太可能适用于所有运动员，但在文献和规定的临床方案中，返回运动许可的时间存在很大的不一致。许多患者因素，例如感知功能、目标功能、信心、术后目标等，对于运动员如何进步和释放以参加体育运动至关重要。这篇《当前观点》文章的目的是讨论 ACL 重建后恢复运动的时间——可能影响计时决策的因素、科学文献中如何评估时间——并促进运动医学和体育界对这一共同话题的讨论。本文的目的不是为该人群确定明确的临床时间截止时间。