"Burying the proud part of my body": a Chinese student-athlete's autoethnography from concussion recovery to role exit.

Student-athletes often struggle to maintain the demands of a dual career in academics and sports. A severe injury can trigger role exit; when the injury is a sport-related concussion (SRC), challenges extend beyond biomedicine-recovery is shaped by social interactions and sociocultural norms and may threaten the physical, psychological, and academic functioning of student-athletes. Despite the growing number of individuals participating in sports, China has limited qualitative research centered on lived-in SRC experiences. Drawing on an autoethnographic account of SRC-triggered role exit and guided by social-ecological theory, this study examines which multi-level social factors generate anxiety, hinder rational decision-making, and re-emerge after SRC and which factors buffer recovery and support exit. The analysis shows that scarce resources and the marginalization of non-system sports participation can intensify personal overinvestment and rapidly centralize athlete identity; this identity both sustains persistence and later impedes transition, amplifying catastrophic thinking, self-doubt, and reluctance during exit. While academic demands heighten dual-track strain, academic capital and attainable goals can become key resources for self-managed recovery and for post-exit identity reconstruction by converting role residuals into research and career advantages. Interpersonally, teammates' instrumental and esteem support, non-moralizing teacher/supervisor support, and family companionship provide critical buffering. At the meso and macro levels, however, limited medical communication, the absence of executable return-to-learn/return-to-play procedures, and the lack of coordinated policy support leave recovery privatized and uncertain, complicating both rehabilitation and decision-making after SRC.