My brother is a professional baseball player. (To protect his privacy, I won’t name the team). He hurt himself and had to have shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum. Right now, he’s in rehab. I’m curious to know if he might not make it back on the field.

With early identification and intervention, many pro-athletes can return to their pre-injury level of play after surgery. Although labral tears can be difficult, high professional players can rehab and return even better than before.

This isn’t always the case, though. And some upper-level professional (major and minor league) players end up retired or playing at a lower level. Without more information, it isn’t possible to predict if you will see your brother back in action.

Based on the statistics available on other players with shoulder labral injuries, there’s a good chance that surgery and rehab may be enough to return him to the same or higher level of play. Shoulder injuries are harder to rehab and recover from compared with elbow injuries. But it can be done!