How to Manage the Fear of Reinjury in Sports

Coming back from an injury can be one of the most difficult challenges you face as an athlete. Physically, you may be cleared. You’ve gone through rehab, you’ve built your strength back up, and on paper, you’re ready.

But mentally… there’s something still holding you back.

As a mental performance coach, I’ve worked with many athletes who’ve dealt with this exact fear—players who desperately want to compete at full speed but find themselves playing timidly and cautiously because deep down, they’re worried about reinjuring themselves.

In this article, I’ll walk you through why this fear shows up and exactly what you can do to overcome it—so you can play with full effort, full confidence, and without hesitation.

Working Through the Fear of Reinjury

One athlete I worked with who struggled with this fear was a high school lacrosse player. He’d been hit during a game and ended up with fluid in his kidney. It was a scary injury, and it kept him out for quite a while.

When he came back, he had full medical clearance. His doctors told him he was fine. His parents encouraged him to play. But mentally, he wasn’t ready to go full contact.

That’s the first important point I want to make:

The fear of reinjury isn’t about your physical readiness—it’s about your mental readiness.

And while it’s not something you want to hear, we have to start with the hard truth…

Accepting the Risk is Step One

If you’re going to compete in sports, there’s always going to be a risk of injury. Always.

Whether it’s a football player risking an ACL tear, a pitcher dealing with the threat of Tommy John surgery, or a basketball player rolling an ankle, injury is part of the game.

That doesn’t mean we live in fear. But it does mean we stop trying to eliminate all risk.

Because the only way to guarantee you won’t get hurt is to not play—or to hold yourself back so much that you’re no longer competing the way you want to.

When that lacrosse player accepted the risk, that’s when things started to change. He stopped focusing on “What if I get hurt?” and started focusing on playing his game.

So that’s the mindset shift you need to make:

  • Accept the risk is there

  • Let go of needing total control

  • Shift your focus to what you can control

Now let’s talk about how to do that.

3 Tools to Help You Manage the Fear of Reinjury

Here are three tools I’ve used with athletes just like the lacrosse player that you can begin using right now to work through this fear.

Mental Rehearsal

This is something I highly recommend doing away from the field.

Take five to ten minutes in a quiet space—somewhere you feel relaxed—and mentally rehearse yourself playing with full effort. Picture yourself:

  • Sprinting at full speed

  • Going full contact

  • Making sharp cuts or throws

  • And most importantly: feeling healthy afterward

This isn’t a magic trick. It won’t make your fear vanish overnight. But it builds belief. And that belief turns into trust in your body—and in your ability to compete.

For the lacrosse player, once he saw himself playing well and going full contact without reinjury, that belief started to grow. You can do the same through visualization.

Set a Specific, Controllable Goal

Fear tends to grow when your focus is on what you don’t want to happen.

If you step onto the field thinking, “I just don’t want to get hurt,” you’ll naturally hold yourself back. You’ll play timid. And ironically, that timid play increases your risk of injury.

Instead, set a specific, controllable goal for yourself.

For the lacrosse player, the goal we set was simple: Go full contact during practice.

This was the very thing he was afraid of, so it became the goal. That flipped the mindset from avoidance to action. He had something clear to focus on—something that put him in control.

So ask yourself: What’s one action I can control today that pushes me toward playing aggressively?

That’s your goal.

Use Your Breath to Stay Present

Most of the time, fear of reinjury pulls you into the future.

You’re imagining getting hurt again. You’re anticipating pain. You’re thinking about the worst-case scenario.

One of the best ways to quiet this is to come back to the present moment using your breath.

This can be as simple as count breathing:

  • Inhale for 5 seconds

  • Exhale for 10 seconds

  • Repeat

You can use this before practice, during a game, or anytime you feel yourself getting tense.

You may also want to build a daily mindfulness meditation practice—even just five minutes a day. Over time, it calms your nervous system and helps you stay grounded no matter what fears come up.

Don’t Forget the Physical Side

While this article is focused on mental tools, it’s worth saying: continue doing everything you can physically to support your return.

  • Stick with your rehab exercises

  • Prioritize sleep

  • Stretch daily

  • Eat to support your recovery

  • Keep building strength around the injured area

I have a professional basketball player I’m working with right now who’s doing this really well. He’s coming back from an ankle injury, and he’s used it as a wake-up call—not just to strengthen the ankle but to take better care of his entire body.

That proactive care builds belief. And that belief turns into confidence. The kind of confidence that allows you to go out, let go, and play freely again.

Final Thoughts

Fear of reinjury doesn’t mean you’re weak.

It just means your mind is trying to protect you.

But you don’t have to stay stuck in that cautious mindset.

With consistent mental rehearsal, controllable goals, and present-moment focus, you can rebuild your confidence, trust your body, and return to the field playing like the athlete you know you are.

If you’re struggling with this fear and want help applying these tools to your sport, I’d love to work with you.

Inside my 12-week one-on-one mental performance coaching program, I help athletes just like you overcome fear, rebuild trust, and return to full-speed, aggressive play.

You can also check out my online programs:

And if you haven’t yet, grab one of my books on Amazon:

Thank you for reading and I wish you the best of success in all that you do.

Contact Success Starts Within Today

Please contact us to learn more about mental coaching and to see how it can improve your mental game and increase your performance. Complete the form below, call (252)-371-1602 or schedule an introductory coaching call here.

Eli Straw

Eli is a sport psychology consultant and mental game coach who works 1-1 with athletes to help them improve their mental skills and overcome any mental barriers keeping them from performing their best. He has an M.S. in psychology and his mission is to help athletes and performers reach their goals through the use of sport psychology & mental training.

Mental Training Courses

Learn more about our main mental training courses for athletes: The Confident Competitor Academy,  The Mentally Tough Kid, and Mental Training Advantage.

The Confident Competitor Academy  is a 6-week program where you will learn proven strategies to reduce fear of failure and sports performance anxiety during games. It’s time to stop letting fear and anxiety hold you back.

The Mentally Tough Kid course will teach your young athlete tools & techniques to increase self-confidence, improve focus, manage mistakes, increase motivation, and build mental toughness.

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Get one-on-one mental performance coaching to help break through mental barriers and become the athlete you’re meant to be!