Pain in athletes post muscle injury

Should there be a different pain monitoring model for athletes post muscle injury?

Based off clinical experience I do believe so, as often or not the painful moment is the moment in time the athlete gets the injury and then after that they describe tightness, but no pain.

And that is one of the phrases I hear all the time when there is a strain, "but I don't have pain walking just tightness" and the athlete believes they can go sprinting within a short time frame, post muscle injury 5-7 days walking will generally feel 100% but this is a very low force compared to running (sprinitng = up to 8.95 x BW force) This phrase can be most common for athletes that don't have experience with a previous muscle injury.

(and yes a strain is a tear they are different words but have the same meaning) Different grades = different time frames not all muscle injuries are the same

We at physio recovery room ask the athlete to not describe pain but is there awarness on the effected side compared to the non effective side and this we find works, as we are not looking for the athletes pain as the majority of time this can lead to a restrain as athletes have very high pain thresholds and the more elite the athlete the higher this can be. So we don't want them to re-experience pain as generally pain = what they felt with the initial injury.

0-2 Awareness Safe zone

2-5 Acceptable zone during rehab only but not running and next day 0-2 awarness but day 2 0 awareness

5-10 High Risk for restrain