The best-supported idea in modern sports rehabilitation is simple: progression should be earned with measured function, not assumed from the calendar. In the Delaware-Oslo ACL cohort (Grindem et al., Br J Sports Med 2016 — 106 ACL-reconstruction patients followed 2 years), more symmetrical quadriceps strength before return and later return (up to 9 months) were each associated with substantially lower reinjury rates. That study is specific to ACL reconstruction and is observational — but its principle, echoed in the 2016 Bern return-to-sport consensus, shapes how rehabilitation is progressed here: build measurable capacity, then advance.
No rehabilitation plan can guarantee an outcome or a timeline, and evidence for many specific techniques is modest. What a structured plan reliably provides is direction, measurement and honest course-correction — the opposite of "rest it and see."