This article examines the recovery of athletes after training and competition loads, as well as the rehabilitation of athletes after illnesses and injuries, from a contemporary sports medicine perspective. Recovery is presented not as passive rest, but as a structured and individualized process that restores physiological, neuromuscular, metabolic, and psychological readiness for the next training stimulus or competitive demand. Special attention is given to the management of training load, sleep, hydration, nutrition, active recovery, and monitoring systems that reduce the risk of maladaptation, overtraining, injury, and illness. The article also analyzes rehabilitation as a criterion-based continuum aimed at restoring function, sport-specific capacity, confidence, and safe return to participation, return to sport, and return to performance. A separate section addresses return-to-play after infectious disease, emphasizing full clinical recovery and gradual reloading.

athlete recovery, training load, competition load, sports rehabilitation, return to play, sports injury, illness in athletes.

Soligard T., Schwellnus M., Alonso J.-M., Bahr R., Clarsen B., Dijkstra H. P., Gabbett T. J., Gleeson M., Hägglund M., Hutchinson M. R., et al. How much is too much? Part 1: International Olympic Committee consensus statement on load in sport and risk of injury // British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2016. Vol. 50, No. 17. P. 1030-1041. DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2016-096581.

Schwellnus M., Soligard T., Alonso J.-M., Bahr R., Clarsen B., Dijkstra H. P., Gabbett T. J., Gleeson M., Hägglund M., Hutchinson M. R., et al. How much is too much? Part 2: International Olympic Committee consensus statement on load in sport and risk of illness // British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2016. Vol. 50, No. 17. P. 1043-1052. DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2016-096572.

Kellmann M., Bertollo M., Bosquet L., Brink M., Coutts A. J., Duffield R., Erlacher D., Halson S. L., Hecksteden A., Heidari J., et al. Recovery and Performance in Sport: Consensus Statement // International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance. 2018. Vol. 13, No. 2. P. 240-245. DOI: 10.1123/ijspp.2017-0759.

Ardern C. L., Glasgow P., Schneiders A., Witvrouw E., Clarsen B., Cools A., Gojanovic B., Griffin S., Khan K. M., Moksnes H., et al. 2016 Consensus statement on return to sport from the First World Congress in Sports Physical Therapy, Bern // British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2016. Vol. 50, No. 14. P. 853-864. DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2016-096278.

Börjesson M., Arvidsson D., Janse van Rensburg C., Schwellnus M. Return to Play After Infectious Disease // In: Musahl V., Karlsson J., Krutsch W., Mandelbaum B. R., Espregueira-Mendes J., d’Hooghe P., eds. Return to Play in Football. Berlin; Heidelberg: Springer, 2018. P. 755-769. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-662-55713-6_56.

American College of Sports Medicine; Sawka M. N., Burke L. M., Eichner E. R., Maughan R. J., Montain S. J., Stachenfeld N. S. Exercise and Fluid Replacement // Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2007. Vol. 39, No. 2. P. 377-390. DOI: 10.1249/mss.0b013e31802ca597.