The athlete should not enter true RTS testing until all of this is clean:
• No effusion, no giving way, no locking, no joint-line irritability, no post-session swelling pattern.
• Full knee extension, near/full flexion appropriate to procedure, and no painful end-range response.
• Stable clinical exam for the ACL case, and no healing red flags for the meniscus case.
• For meniscus repair, progression must respect healing time in addition to objective criteria; faster progression is usually more appropriate after partial meniscectomy than after repair/root/radial-type lesions. 

For meniscus cases specifically, joint-line tenderness and effusion matter a lot. Ongoing tenderness/effusion can signal delayed healing and is a poor sign for pushing impact and cutting.