Sport provides individuals with different benefits, but also comes with the expected risk of injury and pain. Therefore, readiness to play through pain and injury is an important sports and psychological topic. Given the scarcity of previous research on the role of theoretically relevant individual and group characteristics in readiness to play through pain and injury, the aim of this research is to examine the contribution of athletic identity, mental toughness and group cohesion to readiness to play through pain and injury. The study was conducted on 180 professional (N = 45), semi-professional (N = 90) and amateur (N = 45) male handball players who completed Risk, Pain, and Injury Questionnaire, Athletic Identity Measurement Scale, Mental Toughness Index, Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire, Group Environment Questionnaire, and relevant characteristics as age, years of playing and competing league of athletes, via Google Forms. By conducting three hierarchical regression analyses, the results showed that Exclusivity, as a dimension of athletic identity, positively predicted Tough, a dimension of readiness to play through pain and injury. Pressed, as another dimension of readiness to play through pain and injury, was positively predicted with age, Identity and Exclusivity as dimensions of athletic identity, Confidence as dimension of mental toughness, and negatively with league level, years of playing handball and Control as a dimension of mental toughness. The last dimension of readiness to play through pain and injury, that is, Identity, was positively predicted by dimension Exclusivity. The findings indicate that readiness to play through pain and injury may be determined more by individual, psychological and handball, rather than group characteristics, creating the basis for further research on this topic and new empirical insights.