Depicting Return to Play Process in SAP Sports One

Once an injury is documented in SAP Sports One and initial actions are taken, the next crucial step is managing the player’s Return to Play (RTP) process. This stage focuses on managing the recovery process over a longer period, ensuring that every step is aligned with medical best practices. Effective medical planning not only accelerates healing but also minimizes the risk of re-injury, safeguarding the athlete’s long-term health.

In SAP Sports One, you can document return-to-play process-relevant information and steps, such as treatments and medications for the player. This unit will guide you through creating and managing treatment plans, recording physiotherapy sessions, and tracking progress toward recovery milestones. Keeping accurate and detailed records ensures seamless collaboration across the team and supports decisions based on reliable data.

After a player has sustained an injury and a diagnosis has been made, the return-to-play process is initiated with the first treatment. In SAP Sports One, a treatment can be created for the player, as with other event types. To do so, navigate to the Calendar on the home screen and click on the relevant time slot in which the appointment should be scheduled. Select Treatment to create a treatment for a specific player. Please note that creating a treatment can be done several ways: via your own calendar, the player’s calendar, or directly within the created injury record. Creating treatments and treatment plans within the medical event itself will be also covered later on.

The player can then be selected (already preselected in the player calendar), along with the corresponding reference, which in this case is the medical event. In addition to the main treatment information, such as the date and time, body points can be recorded for treatments, similar to injuries. Furthermore, the responsible physiotherapist can be assigned. The selected physiotherapist is notified about the created treatment and receives the treatment in their own calendar in SAP Sports One.

In addition to this, custom treatment information can also be defined, similar to the medical information of an injury. This allows details such as symptoms and treatment types to be recorded for the treatment. Furthermore, a note can be added for the treatment, as shown in this example, documenting the initial treatment one day after the injury.

To create and adjust medical parameters you need for example the role of Administrator or Physiotherapist and the corresponding permission on Medical Data → Medical Parameters. If you have the required permissions, navigate to Catalogs → Medical Parameters → Other Parameters.

Last but not least, measures can also be specified for the treatment to document how the player will be or has been treated. These measures shows in detail what takes place with the player during the treatment. Simply add the relevant measures to the treatment in the appropriate order. The measures can also be customized according to individual workflows and processes.

To create and adjust treatment measures you need for example the role of Administrator or Physiotherapist and the corresponding permission on Medical Data → Medical Parameters. If you have the required permissions, navigate to Catalogs → Medical Parameters → Treatment Measures.

After saving the treatment, the selected player and physiotherapist is notified about the created treatment and receives the treatment entry in their calendar in SAP Sports One and SAP Team One.

When viewing the injury, the treatment is now also documented directly within the injury record. It can be seen that a treatment plan has been created for the injury, containing the created treatment including all details such as measures and medical parameters. This treatment plan now serves as the framework for documenting future treatments along the player’s return-to-play process. This will be the topic of the next lesson.

Of course, during the initial examination, not only treatments are important, but also the documentation of conversation notes with the player or the recording of examination results such as X-ray images or other documents. This information can also be captured within the created injury record in the Notes section or via the Attachments. Please be aware of the permission concept that applies to medical notes, which allows permissions to be granted either to all or only to selected physiotherapists.

After the first treatment has been created, any additional treatments can also be recorded for the injury. The following lesson explains how this can be done directly within the injury, rather than via the calendar.

To add further treatments for a player, navigate to the relevant injury and select Treatment Plan. In this section, treatments can be deleted or edited. Once in Edit mode, the previously entered information is displayed, including the first treatment created for the player with all associated measures.

Click Add Treatment to add a new treatment. As shown in the image, treatments can now be added directly within the injury and not only via the calendar. This is particularly useful when the injury documentation for the player is already open in SAP Sports One during the treatment. Treatment information can also be documented for any subsequent treatments. This provides a clear overview of who treated the player, when the treatment took place, and how the player was treated.

As explained in previous lessons, the SAP Reference Content provides a wide range of analyses for the Medical and Return to Play areas in SAP Sports One. Of particular interest are the analyses related to physiotherapists, which allow the work of the physios to be reviewed in order to evaluate who treated which player and in what way. In addition, extensive individual analyses can be created and tailored to the specific needs of each club. An example of such an analysis is shown below.

Once all treatments for a player have been fully documented (including measures), the complete treatment plan can be saved as a new template for the injury. This offers the advantage of saving time during setup, as treatment plans for a specific injury are often similar across different players. This is intended to support daily work processes. Individual adjustments to the treatment plan are, of course, still possible for specific cases and injuries. To save a template, select the checkbox at the bottom and save the plan.

As previously shown in the calendar, all subsequent treatments are, of course, also available in both the player and physiotherapist calendars. This enables comprehensive calendar management and appointment scheduling.

Now, let's take a look at the use of the treatment template. When creating a new treatment plan in SAP Sports One for a medical event, a previously created template can be selected. As mentioned earlier, this supports the fast documentation of typical treatments for a medical event. Click Add Treatment Plan within an injury, and select the relevant template under Treatment Plan. If no template is available yet, a new one can be created at this point. The remaining steps were already described in the previous lessons.

An overview of a player’s treatments and treatment plans is not only available at the level of individual medical events but also within the medical section of the player profile. Navigate to the Player Profile and select Health → Treatments and Treatment Plans. Here, all treatments and plans associated with the player can be viewed. This overview is particularly useful when a player has multiple medical events at the same time, as it allows a clear view of who treated the player, when, and how.

Proper treatment documentation is essential to ensure safe and effective medical care for athletes. It helps medical staff understand a player’s medical history, previous treatments, and recovery progress. In addition to treatment records, it is especially important to document all medications given to a player. Clear information about which medications were administered, including dosage and timing, helps prevent health risks such as side effects, intolerances, or harmful drug interactions. Without accurate documentation, serious medical errors may occur. Furthermore, in professional sports, strict anti-doping regulations require careful monitoring of all substances. Proper medication documentation protects the player’s health and helps avoid unintentional doping violations.

In SAP Sports One, navigate to the player’s injury and select the Medications section. From there, you can begin entering medications by clicking on Add Medication. When handling medical information - especially medication data - it is crucial that access is restricted to authorized staff members only. For this reason, medication permissions must be managed carefully. You can define whether all physiotherapists are allowed to view the medication or whether access should be limited to selected individuals only. If you choose the second option, the medication will initially be visible only to you. However, permissions can be adjusted at any time. After saving the medication, select Manage Medication Permissions and assign access rights to specific users or person groups. This ensures data protection, confidentiality, and compliance with medical privacy standards.

In addition, you can record further medication-related information within SAP Sports One. All medications can also be customized in a medication catalog, allowing you to select standardized entries instead of creating new ones each time. This supports consistency, accuracy, and efficient documentation and analysis.

After selecting the medication, you can enter additional details such as medication type, dosage, frequency, and method of administration. Just like the additional information fields for injuries and treatments in SAP Sports One, these medication fields are individually configurable. This means the system can be adapted to your specific workflows and documentation standards.

To create and adjust medical parameters you need for example the role of Administrator or Physiotherapist and the corresponding permission on Medical Data → Medical Parameters. If you have the required permissions, navigate to Catalogs → Medical Parameters → Other Parameters.

In addition, you can track which medical staff member issued the medication. This allows you to maintain a clear overview of who authorized the medication and who was in direct contact with the player regarding its administration. In this context, documenting the medication reason, duration of use, and prescription date is also highly relevant, as it provides transparency and supports accurate medical follow-up.

It is especially important that, as defined in the medication catalog, you can immediately see whether a medication is relevant for doping control. This indicator is crucial in professional sports, as it helps track prohibited or restricted substances and prevents unexpected issues later on. Proper visibility ensures that potential doping violations are identified early and reduces the risk of sanctions or suspensions for the player.

Comprehensive analyses can also be created for the medication area. Using the SAP Reference Content, you can access analytical dashboards designed for this purpose. These dashboards provide a complete overview of all medications and allow you to track, at player level, which medications have been administered. This supports transparency, enables informed medical decisions, and helps medical and performance staff maintain full control over medication usage across the team.

After recording a player’s medical incidents, treatments, and medications, you can also view the player’s complete medical history. To do this, navigate to the player profile and select Health → History. This section provides an overview of all injuries, sicknesses, preventive actions, treatment plans, and medications.

You can use the available filter options and date selection to display specific information relevant to your needs. For injuries and sicknesses, the system also shows how many days the player was training-exempt and how long they spent in rehabilitation. This information requires proper maintenance of the status fields, which will be covered in the next lesson.

The body map on the right displays all injuries the player sustained during the selected time range. This visual overview provides a clear understanding of the player's injury history. To support reporting or documentation, you can export this information using the PDF download option.

After reviewing initial and ongoing treatments, we will now examine the Return to Play process in SAP Sports One. This process is essential for managing a player's rehabilitation and ensuring a safe transition back to full training and competition.

In SAP Sports One, you can manage and update a player's current status and availability. This allows you to track if a player is fully fit, partially restricted, or unavailable for training and matches. Maintaining accurate statuses ensures that all staff members are aligned on the player's condition, enabling informed decisions regarding rehabilitation. Additionally, it provides a clear record of the player's recovery timeline for future reference.

A player’s availability indicates whether they are available for training, matches, or both. Different situations can be represented - for example, a player might be available for both training and matches, unavailable for both, only available for training but not matches, or currently in rehabilitation. In SAP Sports One, the Availability Colors for a player can be customized to match your specific needs regarding the rehabilitation steps. As you can see in the image below, there is already a default set of availability colors. However, you can also easily add custom colors to represent statuses or to better align with your team’s internal terminology and reporting standards. This flexibility ensures that all staff have a clear, visual understanding of each player’s current availability at a glance.

If you have the appropriate permissions, go to Catalog → Medical Parameters → Availability Colors.

On the same page, under Status, you can also view the default statuses available for players. These statuses represent the different phases a player may be in during the return-to-play process. By default, a basic status structure is provided, including Exempt, In Rehab, and In Observation. In SAP Sports One, you can further enhance these default statuses by adding status comments as subcategories. This allows you to build a clear hierarchy and break down phases - such as the rehab phase - into more detailed steps that better reflect your workflow. Each status defined in the system is also linked to an availability. The availability colors you previously configured are assigned to these statuses, providing a clear and intuitive visual overview of the player’s current availability.

Now let’s take a look at how to maintain a player’s status and availability within an existing injury. Navigate to the injury and select the Recovery Process section. As you can see, the status Exempt is already set, as the player has been fully injured up to this point. If you would like to update the player’s status after completing the treatments and end the Exempt status, you can do so by selecting the edit button. To close the status, simply set the Date To field to the relevant day. This marks the end of the current status and allows you to continue documenting the player’s progression within the return-to-play process.

In addition, you can add a new status by clicking the Add Event Status button. In the Status or Status Comment section, you can select from the statuses you previously defined. This allows you to document that the player has progressed to the next step in the return-to-play process.

You also have the option to maintain the player’s availability at this stage. While each status has a predefined default availability, as explained earlier, this value can be adjusted flexibly if needed. For example, a player may be in observation but still not available for training. This flexibility ensures that the documented status and availability accurately reflect the player’s actual condition and training participation.

In addition to the status validity dates, notes, and the location for treatments, you can also specify the recovery percentage. This allows you to define how much of the return-to-play process has already been completed. Furthermore, similar to treatments, you can assign a responsible physiotherapist to the status. This helps ensure accountability and provides clarity on who is overseeing the player’s recovery at each stage. The creation of a new status may look as follows:

With this, you now have all the information needed to maintain a player’s status and availability. Use the statuses to document the complete recovery process throughout the return-to-play journey. Please ensure that the time periods of the statuses do not overlap, as this is essential for maintaining accurate documentation and a clear recovery timeline.

You can also view the current player availability status of a medical incident directly in the Health area of the player profile. The medical incident is visually highlighted using the corresponding availability color, making the player’s current condition easy to identify at a glance.

Maintaining the correct status is especially important to keep all relevant stakeholders within the club informed about the player’s current condition. In the following lesson, you will learn how player availability can be monitored and analyzed based on the player’s status.