Ankle Sprain

What is an ankle sprain?

So you ‘rolled’ your ankle? Painful? Swollen? The culprit is usually the ligaments on the outside of the ankle. Right around the knobbly bit. There are 3 main ligaments and mostly the front one gets damaged first (though not always) – its called ATFL (has a fancy latin name too). We grade the severity of the sprain from 1-3. To be honest, it’s a pretty dodgy classification system but a ‘3’ is a full tear and a 1 is mild and 2 is somewhere in between.

Why do ankle sprains happen?

Foot rolls in + Not enough muscle to hold it = Ligament gets put under extra strain = Ligament injury. Can result from genetics (wobbly ankle gene) or previous injury (more likely if you’ve done it before) and particular sports they’re more likely (basketball, netball, soccer). And of course other factors like: fatigue, poor sleep, stress, poor diet etc all can play a role in increasing injury risk.

What can you do about an ankle sprain? Ankle Physiotherapy in Newcastle.

All the latest clever-clogs research says: ‘GET ON IT!’ If you can weight bear – sooner the better. If it’s too sore to put your foot down best next thing is a moon-boot. So you can put weight on it but it’s protected. Last and worst option is crutches. Or a billycart. Ice it if you like the cold (but don’t get too stressed if you don’t), strap it up to keep it secure and take the pressure off the hurty ligaments. See a physio. It’s super common to find folks who have ‘rolled’ their ankle and figured it will ‘just get better on its own’ which is only 1/2 true. See a good physio. Get better faster and get faster better.

How long will an ankle sprain take?

Most Grade 1s will take 2-4 wks, Grade 2s can be anything up to 6-8 wks, Grade 3 – could be 3 months. It’s hard to be too exact because theres a bunch of variance between people.