The wear of polymer-based materials is connected to their brittleness. We have previously formulated a quantitative definition of brittleness in terms of elongation at break and storage modulus for thermoplastic polymers. We provide a formula connecting brittleness to viscoelastic recovery (healing) after sliding wear. Our model fits a selection of ten thermoplastics representing several classes of polymers with different chemical structures and mechanical properties. Now including polyvinylidene fluoride, poly(methylmethacrylate), and polyphenylsulfone, we demonstrate that from our formula we can predict the percentage recovery in sliding wear from our measure of brittleness.