Insights
Ideas, research and product thinking on running a faster, safer return-to-play process.
Beyond Dictation: What "Proper" Clinical AI Actually Looks Like
Discover why voice dictation isn't true clinical AI. Learn how AI documentation generates instant SOAP notes, eliminates pajama time, and reclaims your hours.
Built for Rehab: Gameplan Programming
Rehab is more than a list of gym exercises. On a single day, an injured athlete might receive soft tissue work, a modality, a set of movement drills and a loading session. Each of those is a planned intervention, and each one is part of the same return to play.
Why Spreadsheets Were Never Built to Manage Rehab
Spreadsheets are the default tool for rehab tracking in most organisations. They're familiar and flexible. That flexibility is exactly what makes them unreliable as a place to hold rehab data.
How the AMS Landscape Has Changed, and What It Means for Rehab
The way teams build and buy athlete management systems is shifting. That shift has direct consequences for how rehab gets managed.
Return-to-Play ROI: The Financial Case for One Game Sooner
What does it actually cost when a player is on the bench for one game through injury?
A Spreadsheet Doesn't Get Smarter
There is a version of institutional knowledge in elite sport that never gets recorded. It lives in the decisions a practitioner makes halfway through a complex case — the adjustment to a criteria item, the modification to a loading phase, the early introduction of a movement pattern that worked…
Are You Investing in the Right Thing? Talent vs. Systems in Elite Rehabilitation.
The investment case for elite rehabilitation has always been made in terms of people. Hire the best physiotherapists. Recruit experienced performance coaches. Build a medical department staffed with genuine specialists. The assumption behind that investment is straightforward: better…
Great Staff. Wrong Structure. Why Sequential Rehab Fails Elite Teams.
The traditional rehabilitation model in elite sport is not the product of poor intentions. It reflects a historically reasonable response to professional specialisation — physiotherapy owns the acute phase, S&C assumes loading when the athlete is cleared, coaching receives a conditionally fit…
One Athlete. Multiple Professionals. How Many RTP Plans Are Actually Being Run?
Three people are working on the same athlete at the same time. Three sets of tests. Three sets of objectives. Three sets of criteria for what ready looks like. The physiotherapist, the S&C coach, and the medical lead are each doing their job — and each building their own case for when this…
Earlier Data, Better Mornings: Getting the Rehab Update Before Your Athletes Walk In
Imagine this: an athlete wakes up, reports their wellness and symptoms through an app before leaving the house. An AI agent detects an outlier score and alerts the relevant staff member instantly. The plan is adjusted. The athlete is contacted. And the morning briefing begins with the full…
Michael Giakoumis - Gameplan for Hamstring Strains
Episode 223 : In this 1st episode of Gameplans — a collaboration between Gameplan and Inform Performance, Host Andy McDonald is joined by Michael Giakoumis, the Head of Reh ab at Manchester City FC.
If Your Rehab Data Isn't Connectable to Your AI Stack, You're Not Building Infrastructure
The most forward thinking performance departments aren't asking if the software is good. They're asking if it can be reached by their AI stack.
Fearghal Kerin - Leading Elite Hamstring Rehab
Proud to support Fearghal Kerin and Kerin Performance. Fearghal is one of the most respected hamstring rehabilitation specialists in the world. Over 15 years in elite sport. Ten…
GBG Hoops Selects Gameplan
We’re proud to announce that Coach Mike G and GBG Hoops have chosen Gameplan to support the performance and rehab systems behind some of the NBA’s top athletes. Mike is known for…
Ben & Ashworth & Athletic Shoulder
Gameplan is pleased to announce Ben Ashworth and his Athletic Shoulder Consultancy as a new partner and user of our platform. Led by Ben Ashworth, Athletic Shoulder is…
FIFA World Cup — Off-Site, Out of Sight: Why Clinical Visibility Breaks Down the Moment an Athlete Leaves the Building
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is currently running across the United States, Canada, and Mexico — 48 nations, 104 matches, and hundreds of club players now in national team environments for weeks at a time.
The Cone of Uncertainty: A Framework for Setting Return-to-Play Expectations Under Pressure
The hardest conversation in rehab is not the one about the diagnosis.
From Rehab to the Academy: Why Purpose-Built Tracking Changes LTAD Outcomes
The LTAD framework is not the problem.
The Vulnerability Of The Blank Canvas: Why Excel Compromises Rehab Data Quality
In elite sport, running multi-million pound return-to-play processes on spreadsheets creates a persistent operational risk: Excel is fundamentally unsuited for broad-source data collection across a multidisciplinary rehab department. While spreadsheets offer a blank canvas for isolated manual…
Controlled Collaboration: Rehab Across In-House & External Staff
Rehab at an elite organisation is, by its nature, a collaborative discipline.
The Visual Layer Rehab Has Always Needed
Rehab is a layered, time-based, multi-stream process. It involves overlapping phases, parallel workstreams, dependencies, and drift. And yet most teams are still trying to manage it through threads, documents, and memory. The work is sophisticated. The view of the work is not.
Gameplan's Collaborative Rehab Templates: Unifying Teams, Elevating Outcomes
n the dynamic world of elite sports rehabilitation, the challenge of aligning diverse perspectives and approaches within an interdisciplinary team is all too familiar. Each member of the staff brings a unique set of skills and expertise to the table, but harnessing these strengths into a…
Transforming Rehab Consistency with Gameplan's Template System
In the realm of elite sports, the imperative to return athletes to play swiftly and safely is paramount. However, the process is often hindered by inconsistencies — varying staff, criteria, and approaches.
Same Athlete, Different Standards — Fixing the Criteria Gap
In elite rehabilitation, most return-to-play failures are not caused by a lack of expertise. They are caused by a lack of agreement. Specifically, agreement on what progression from one phase to the next actually requires — and who is responsible for deciding when that threshold has been met.
Who Changed the Plan? The Case for Audit Trails in Elite Sport Rehab
In elite sport, return-to-play decisions rarely happen in isolation. There's a timeline. A diagnosis. A series of interventions, conversations, and calls made by multiple people across days or weeks. And sometimes — when a return is delayed, or a timeline shifts — someone further up the chain…
The Update Tax: The Hidden Hours Elite Rehab Staff Lose Keeping Everyone in the Loop
In elite sport, everyone talks about workload. Training load. Match load. Recovery load. But there's another load that rarely gets mentioned, one that drains practitioners before the session even starts.
The Complexity Gap: Why High-Performance Rehab Requires a Pilot’s Rigour
In his book The Checklist Manifesto , Atul Gawande argues that in complex, high-stakes environments—like surgery or aviation—failure is rarely the result of a lack of knowledge. Instead, it is a failure of execution: the "memory test" of trying to manage too many moving parts at once. Rehab in…
Lucky or Correct? The High Cost of Bypassing Clinical Hard-Gates
In the high-stakes environment of elite sport, the final stages of rehabilitation are often the most precarious. A player may report feeling excellent, move with apparent fluidity on the grass, and appear entirely ready to rejoin the squad. However, in a professional setting, "looking good" is…
The "42% Risk": Why Elite Rehab Departments are Losing Millions in Untapped Intelligence
In the high-stakes world of elite sport, we talk a lot about player availability. We track every internal load, every sleep score, and every jump height. But there is a silent metric leaking from your department that likely isn’t on your dashboard: Unique Knowledge.
Don’t Let Your Rehab Processes Walk Out the Door: Building a Department That Retains Its Intelligence
Elite sport is a revolving door of talent. This is expected for players, but when it happens within your backroom staff, the cost is often invisible until it’s too late.
Live Intelligence: Why Symptom Data Must Evolve Beyond the SOAP Note
In the high-performance environment of elite rehabilitation, symptoms are the most frequent and sensitive feedback loops available to a practitioner. Pain, swelling, and stiffness are not merely clinical markers; they are the primary indicators of an athlete’s readiness to progress or their need…
Rehab Isn’t Step-by-Step. It’s Side-by-Side.
Rehabilitation is often described as a sequence. One phase follows another. One box is ticked before the next can begin. On paper, this approach appears orderly and reassuring. It suggests control. It suggests progress. It suggests that complexity can be managed by arranging work into a neat line.
Gameplan Enables Secure Third-Party Access for External Practitioners
Elite rehab is rarely contained within a single building. Athletes today engage with a constellation of practitioners: national team physios, private consultants, club-based S&C staff, post-surgical specialists, and more. But while the reality of shared care has become normalised, the systems…
The Difference Between Logging Rehabilitation and Learning From It
Most high-performance teams now collect substantial volumes of rehabilitation data as part of their daily work. Sessions are logged, clinical notes are written, training loads are tracked, and milestones are marked as complete. In many environments, this activity is coordinated through…
Consistency Is the Foundation for Learning in Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation teams across elite sport place significant value on review. Case audits, post-season reflections, and discussions around what worked or failed are widely recognised as essential to improving return-to-play outcomes.
Governance Across Multi-Team and Multi-Club Structures
As high-performance sporting organisations increasingly operate across multi-team and multi-club structures, the demands placed on rehabilitation governance have intensified. Athlete movement between first teams, academies, development squads, and satellite environments is now routine. Yet…
Why Spreadsheets Still Sit at the Centre of Rehab — And Why They Quietly Hold Teams Back
Most high-performance teams did not choose spreadsheets because they were ideal for rehab. They chose them because they were available.
Operational Foresight: The Edge in Elite Rehab
In elite sport, technical expertise is a given. Every team has skilled physios, experienced S&C coaches, and access to the best clinical protocols. That’s not what separates high-functioning environments from those constantly stuck reacting.
From Vibes to Visibility: Why Rehab Progression Needs a Better Compass
In elite sport, milestone frameworks are rarely absent — but they are often misaligned.
Why Rehab Teams Need Shared Targets, Not Arbitrary Roles
In elite sport, we often talk about multidisciplinary rehab as if it naturally comes together through good communication and clearly defined roles. The physio leads early management. The S&C coach takes over when the athlete can load. The sport scientist monitors the return to running volume.…
Integration Is the Real Rehab Problem No One Wants to Admit
Elite rehab isn’t constrained by clinical expertise. Every club has that. The real challenge sits beneath the surface: how teams work together under pressure.
The Hidden Workload in Rehab Oversight
In elite performance environments, the rehabilitation process is often framed as a clinical challenge. Most discussions focus on diagnosis, loading strategies, progression criteria, and the return-to-play timeline. But the people who carry responsibility for coordinating that process — Heads of…
When Every Session Lives in a Different Tool, Alignment Doesn’t Stand a Chance
In elite sport, rehab is never delivered by just one role — or one platform.
The Hidden Cost of Reporting Across Roles in High-Performance Sport
In every professional performance environment, one reality never changes — multiple roles, different concerns, and multiple reports and updates needed.
Communication in Chaos: Why Elite Teams Can’t Rely on Meetings Anymore
In professional sport, things move fast - Schedules shift overnight - Sessions get pulled forward - Coaches call an audible at 07:00 and the whole day reshuffles.
What Is Gameplan?
In elite sport, every day of lost availability has a cost. Yet for many organizations, the systems supporting return-to-play (RTP) decisions still look more like a patchwork than a platform. Rehab plans live in spreadsheets. Notes are stored in messaging apps. Progress data is hidden in shared…
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