Run a concussion through graduated return to play

Concussion is the one injury where the timing isn't a judgement call. Once you flag a suspected concussion, Clubhouse runs it on Football Australia's Community Sports Concussion Guidelines (April 2025): eight graduated steps, a minimum day for each, a 14-day symptom-free clock before full contact, and sign-offs shared between the coach on the training ground and you. The protocol protects a young brain from a return that's a week too early, and it protects you from the "can he play Saturday?" conversation, because the answer is on the card for everyone to see. This page walks the whole protocol as the app runs it, from the first flag to Clear & return to match.

The examples come from Finn Larsson, a BYL U13 player twelve days into his return.

Everything lives on the injury. Open the concussion from Active Injuries and the injury details carry a Concussion GRTP card: the ladder, the warnings, the symptom-free clock and every action. Coaches meet the protocol somewhere else, as a GRTP Step 4 chip against the player on their training session roster. You don't need to tell them where to look; the chip is on the session they're already running.

Every minimum in the protocol counts calendar days from the incident date you enter on the injury, not from the day you logged it:

Step 7 also needs 14 symptom-free days, whichever column the player is in. A repeat concussion is a second one within 12 months. The app spots it when you log the injury, moves the whole ladder to the longer minimums and shows a red warning on the card so nobody plans against the wrong column.

When you log the injury (Log New Injury on the board), choosing Head as the body region shows an amber Suspected concussion checkbox. Tick it and the form lists the protocol's minimums before you've saved anything. It is never ticked for you, because a cut eyebrow is a head injury without being a concussion. Change the body region away from Head and the tick clears.

A head knock reported by a parent arrives in Pending Review like any other report, and accepting it doesn't flag a concussion on its own. Select Accept & activate, then edit the injury and tick the checkbox once your assessment says so.

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Top to bottom, the card tells you where Finn's return stands:

• The day counter. Day 12 next to the title is days since the incident, the number every minimum is measured against.
• Warnings. A red one for a repeat concussion. An amber replan needed when a planned step can no longer happen as booked. A blue reminder when the player's date of birth is missing, so the age-based advice can't be applied (fix it on the player's profile). And for an under-19, a blue reminder that FA's cognitive return-to-learn advice applies: schoolwork and screen time come back alongside the physical steps. The app reminds you of return-to-learn; it doesn't track it.
• The symptom-free clock. Until you record a date it reads Awaiting symptoms-resolved date, with Mark resolved beside it. After that it counts, for example Symptom-free for 3 days · 11 more for Step 7, and turns green once the 14 days are up.
• The ladder. Each step shows its minimum (Day 10+), what it's booked against (Training 13 Oct, Match 17 Oct, or Self-managed) and how it's going: green with the date it was confirmed, blue and pulsing for the current step, a padlock where the minimum isn't reached yet, red Blocked when it can't go ahead as planned, and amber Awaiting confirmation when the date passed and nobody confirmed it. That last one usually means the coach forgot to tap the chip.

A concussion without a plan says so: No GRTP plan yet — sessions and the match return need to be assigned to each step. Select Build plan to open Build GRTP plan. Once there's a plan, the card offers Edit plan instead.

The builder lists all eight steps, and each one gets booked against something real:

• Self-managed for the early steps the player does at home, with a date.
• Training session, from the squad's actual upcoming sessions, each showing its date, time and venue.
• Match / fixture, from the squad's real fixtures. Step 8 is always a match, because a return to match needs one.

The builder checks as you go and won't save around a problem. A step booked too early reads Below 14-day floor (12d), dates can't go backwards from one step to the next, and a training or match step needs an actual session or fixture picked. Steps already confirmed show Completed — locked, so replanning never rewrites what happened.

Save plan asks before anything is sent. For a first plan it asks Save the plan and tell the family?; when you're changing an existing plan it asks Save the updated plan and tell the family? Either way it names the parents, shows the exact notification, and tells you the treating physio gets a copy. Save and notify 2 parents saves the schedule and sends it (the number is however many parents and guardians the family has). Back returns you to the plan with nothing saved.

Steps 1 to 6 are confirmed where they happen. On the session a step is booked against, the coach taps Finn's GRTP Step 4 chip. It asks one question: did he complete today's session symptom-free? There's an optional note for anything the medical team should know, such as "complained of headache after second drill, sat out last 10 min".

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• Symptom-free — confirm Step 4 opens Confirm Step 4 for Finn Larsson?, naming the parents and showing the notification. Confirm and notify 2 parents records the step as done and tells the family, including the next step's date when the plan has one.
• Symptoms returned opens Flag symptoms at Step 4? the same way. Flag and notify 2 parents records the step as not completed, marks it Blocked, and tells the family and the treating physio that the physio will review before the next step.

A coach's flag does not reset the symptom-free clock. That is a clinical call, so it stays with you: speak to the player, and if the symptoms are real, log the relapse from the card. If they aren't, move the blocked step to a later session with Edit plan. Until you do, the card says who held the step and why:

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You can confirm the current step yourself from the card (Confirm Step 4) when you were at the session or the coach told you in person.

The symptom-free clock is yours alone. When the symptoms settle, Mark resolved records the date (not before the incident and not in the future) and starts the 14-day count towards Step 7. If symptoms come back, Symptoms returned on the card opens the relapse form with a note. Log relapse asks Log the relapse and tell the family? with the parents and the message in front of you, and Log and notify 2 parents clears the clock, locks Step 7 again and tells the family and the treating physio. A relapse is the protocol working: the ladder holds where it is and waits for a new symptoms-resolved date.

The last two steps carry a purple Physio tag. A coach who taps the chip on those sessions reads that physio sign-off is required, Coaches don't confirm Steps 7 or 8, with nothing to press but Got it. When Step 7 is current, its minimum has passed and the clock is green, the card offers Approve Step 7, and the sign-off is recorded under your name.

Step 8 has Clear & return to match instead, which opens the resolve form, because clearing a concussion and closing the injury are the same act:

1. Medical clearance date and practitioner. Both are required for a concussion and stay on the injury permanently.
2. Return to training date, and optionally a return to match date. A match date inside 21 days (28 for a repeat) won't save, and the form tells you why. Leave it blank and it takes the training date.
3. FA RTP Declaration. Optionally attach the signed declaration (PDF or image, up to 10MB). It's kept as an internal note on the injury.

Above the button, the form shows who will be told and the exact message they'll read: the family, plus the squad's coaches and S&C staff. This is the only point in the protocol where coaches get a notification, because it's the only one that changes who they can pick. The notification is on by default. Switch it off and the clearance is still recorded on the injury's timeline, just without a message. A sent notification can't be taken back, so the button names the head count before you press it.

Once resolved, the injury moves to Injury History and the ladder shows every step complete. Finn is available again everywhere at once, so the coach's next lineup already lets them pick him.

Plans are booked against real sessions, so real life breaks them: a session is cancelled, a fixture is abandoned, a coach flags symptoms. The affected steps turn Blocked, and two places point you to the fix: the amber warning on the card, and a Replan needed list on the medical home naming every affected player and why (session cancelled, fixture removed, flagged blocked). Edit plan reopens the builder with completed steps locked. Move the remaining steps and save.

Clubhouse also checks every hour for plans left pointing at sessions that no longer exist, and tells you when a physio sign-off step reaches its date, so a stalled return doesn't wait for someone to notice.

"Treating physio" is the physio assigned to the injury, or every club physio if nobody is assigned yet. Notifications say what changed and never carry clinical detail; the clinical record stays on the injury. Only the last row reaches a coach, because it's the only one that changes their team sheet. Everything before it is between you and the family.

Each family notification in the table is titled Concussion (BYL U13) and says what changed in one line, built from the plan itself:

• First plan saved: "Finn Larsson — concussion GRTP plan ready. Tap to view the schedule."
• Plan changed: "Finn Larsson — concussion GRTP plan updated. Tap to view the new schedule."
• A step confirmed: "Finn Larsson — Step 4 confirmed. Next: Step 5 on 8 Oct." The next step is named only when the plan has it booked with a date. Otherwise the message stops at "Step 4 confirmed."
• A coach flag: "Finn Larsson — symptoms reported at Step 4. The physio will review before the next step."
• A relapse you logged: "Finn Larsson — symptom return logged. GRTP clock has been reset."

The sign-off reminder, "Step 7 sign-off needed for Finn Larsson — physio approval required.", is written for you and goes only to the medical team.

Tapping any of them opens the concussion on the family's Health tab, where the injury carries a read-only Concussion return to play card. It's the same eight-step ladder you manage, with the day counter, the countdown to Step 7, the completed steps and every upcoming date, and not a single button:

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That card is why a concussion generates so few "when can he play?" calls: the family watches the same ladder you do. Read it once from their side on Report and track an injury. The final clearance travels with the injury update instead (the table's last row), and its wording is on Manage an injury end to end.

• Every concussion on the board has a plan, every step is booked against a real session or match, and nothing reads Awaiting confirmation for more than a day or two.
• The symptoms-resolved date went in on the day the symptoms settled.
• Coaches confirm their steps from the chip without asking you where it is.
• No concussion is resolved without a clearance date and a named practitioner (the app won't allow it), and no return-to-match date sits inside the minimum.