A player who is pain-free at eight weeks after an ACL reconstruction is not the same as a player who is ready to change direction at full speed. Pain is one of the least reliable signals we have, because it responds to rest, to confidence and to how much someone wants to be back playing on Saturday. None of that tells you whether the quadriceps has recovered.
We test instead. A single hop, a triple hop and a crossover hop, each compared side to side, plus an isokinetic strength ratio on the dynamometer. Below 90 per cent limb symmetry index on either measure and the answer is more rehab, not a risk assessment, whatever the fixture list says.