There’s a conversation we’re still not having enough in baseball. It’s not about velocity, mechanics, or surgical outcomes—it’s about the headspace athletes are left to navigate after a UCL injury. The findings are blunt: PTSD symptoms are common during recovery. In some cases, they're severe.

This isn’t about being soft. It’s about being human.

For years, we’ve treated UCL injuries as strictly orthopedic problems. Fix the ligament, strengthen the arm, and send the athlete back out. But what this study highlights is that for many players, the injury also fractures their psychological stability—and we’ve done very little to address that side of the rehab.

Let’s break down what the study found:

➡️ Nearly 70% of players reported PTSD symptoms
➡️ 28.8% met the threshold for probable PTSD diagnosis
➡️ 18.3% were classified as severe
➡️ 21.2% showed clinical concern levels

Dig deeper, and it gets more alarming:
➡️ 92.3% experienced intrusion symptoms—unwanted thoughts, flashbacks
➡️ 94.2% reported avoidance—actively trying not to think or feel anything about the injury
➡️ 88.5% experienced hyperarousal—trouble concentrating, exaggerated startle responses

Pitchers were more affected than two-way players. College athletes reported more severe symptoms than high schoolers. Maybe that’s about identity. Maybe it’s about stakes. Probably both.

So What Do We Do With This?

📍 Coaches, trainers, physical therapists, and strength staff all need to understand that mental health is a performance variable—especially post-injury.
📍 Poor psychological responses aren’t just emotional. They can derail rehab, slow buy-in, and manifest in protective movement patterns that limit progress.
📍 Integrating a sports psychologist isn’t a luxury—it’s part of quality care.

This doesn’t mean we need to pathologize every athlete who gets hurt. But it does mean we need to stop assuming that physical recovery tells the whole story.

If you’ve worked with athletes long enough, you’ve seen it: the guy who “should” be throwing again but can’t let it go mentally. The guy who’s cleared but hesitant, distracted, easily frustrated. That’s not about arm strength. That’s trauma doing what trauma does—reshaping the way someone sees themselves and the field.

Let’s stop pretending mental health is separate from rehab. If we’re not addressing both, we’re leaving players half-recovered.