Arabic Version of the Injury-Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport Scale: Validation and Cultural Adaptation

Background: The Injury-Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport (I-PRRS) is a validated and reliable scale to assess the psychological readiness of athletes returning to sport after an injury and it has been translated and validated in several languages. Objectives: To translate the I-PRRS scale into Arabic (I-PRRS-Ar) and evaluate its psychometric properties in Arabic-speaking athletes. Methods: An observational, cross-sectional study was conducted among Arabic-speaking injured athletes recruited from various sports clinics and sport clubs across Saudi Arabia. Psychometric properties examined included internal consistency, test–retest reliability, content validity, convergent validity with the Arabic Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK-Ar) and the Arabic Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NPRS-Ar), and structural validity. Results: A total of 140 athletes completed the I-PRRS-Ar, while 34 athletes completed the scale twice to assess the test–retest reliability. The I-PRRS-Ar demonstrated excellent content validity (CVI ≥0.90), good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α =0.85), and excellent test–retest reliability (ICC_2,1 = 0.83). Standard error of measurement was 3.83, and minimal detectable change was 10.64. No floor or ceiling effects were found. I-PRRS-Ar showed weak negative correlation with TSK-Ar (r = -0.28, P = 0.001) and moderate negative correlation with NPRS-Ar (r = −0.32, P < 0.001). Factor analysis confirmed a unidimensional structure. Conclusions: The Arabic version of the Injury-Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport (I-PRRS-Ar) is a reliable and valid tool for assessing psychological readiness to return to sport in Arabic-speaking athletes after an injury.