Purpose. The main aim of this study was to describe the thoughts and feelings of future working life related to return to work (RTW) in sick-listed persons due to musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). Further aim was to compare these descriptions with the person’s actual working situation 1, 5 and 10 years after a rehabilitation period.

Methods. This study consisted of two parts. The first part had an explorative design, and qualitative content analysis was chosen in order to analyse the response to an open question regarding future working life answered before, persons sick-listed due to MSD (n = 320), took part in a rehabilitation programme 10 years ago. The second part had a prospective design and quantitative analysis was used to compare the results of the qualitative analysis with RTW and the working situation 1, 5 and 10 years after baseline.

Results. Three categories emerged from the data with a total of nine subcategories. In the categories Motivation and optimism and Limitations to overcome, there were significantly more persons who had RTW 1 year after baseline when compared with the category Hindrance and hesitation. There were also some significant differences between the subcategories.

Conclusions. The question, regarding thoughts and feelings of future working life, may be a simple screening method to predict RTW in persons sick-listed with MSD. This will guide the rehabilitation team to adjust the rehabilitation to each person’s needs and facilitating RTW.