Beyond the Sagittal Plane: The Lateral Countermovement Jump as a Clinical Tool for Return-to-Play Decision-Making and Performance Evaluation

Return-to-play (RTP) decision-making after lower-extremity injury has traditionally emphasized sagittal-plane assessments, including double and single leg vertical jump metrics, double and single-leg hop batteries, and quadriceps strength limb symmetry indices (LSI). Yet many sports place a disproportionate demand on frontal-plane, lateral force production; basketball players, for example, spend up to a third of their live game actions in a defensive shuffle or lateral cutting posture. Recent force-plate evidence supports the single-leg lateral countermovement jump (LCMJ) as a reliable, time-efficient, and low-load assessment capable of stratifying lateral movement competency in elite athletes. This clinical commentary reviews recent reliability and discriminant-validity data on the LCMJ, places the test within the broader RTP evidence base and its known limitations, and proposes a practical framework for incorporating relative lateral force testing into RTP and performance batteries used by physical therapists and sports medicine clinicians.