ankle injury

[andyho10]

new to the site and hoping someone can help me out.

lets starts of with my right ankle which i injuried last year back in september from a bad tackle from football (soccer), the player hit my ankle from the outside and made my foot go outwards which injuried the inside of my ankle. it took months to heal, it dont hurt when i run but i can feel it tweak when i kick the ball. is this weak ligaments? feels like the pain is from inside the joint.

now onto my left ankle, sprained it from football again lol this time i stepped on my team mates foot and my ankle rolled and heard a snap, it swelled up abit the next day but no bruising so figured its not broken so didnt bother going to doctor as i no how to treat it. its been 2 months now and its still painful, the pain occurs when i point my toes and if i put pressure on the outside of the ankle.

any ideas?

[Heidi]

Hi
I think the answer to both is a rehab programme. Medial (inner) ankle sprains are usually more difficult to treat.
Make sure you stretch your calf muscles thoroughly to ensure you have a full range of motion. Rehab band exercises are great for strengthening the ankle in all directions.
You should also look to improve your balance (proprioception) using balance exercises or wobble boards/cushions.
If this does not improve you may need some professional treatment to reduce scar tissue in the ligaments with frictions and ultrasound.
http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/ankle/anklesprain.htm

[andyho10]

thanks for reply

any idea how long the rehab will take? i miss football so much lol

[Heidi]

Its difficult to give a timescale as it depends so much on the extent of the problem, the effectiveness of the programme and also your adherence to it! You should start to see improvements within 4-6 weeks.

[andyho10]

should i be doing ankle exercises and stretches everyday?

[Heidi]

Definately stretch everyday. Start off doing strengthening exercises every outher day and increase to every day provided there is no pain afterwards.

[andyho10]

been almost 2 weeks since i started ankle rehab on both my ankles.

the left 1 i can feel its getting better but the right 1 i dunno. sometimes it feels better but sometimes i can feel something is wrong in the joint......its like the back of the inside of the ankle bone (inner part). pains comes when i go tip toes but only if i shift the weight to my little toe if u no wat i mean lol

[Heidi]

Just persevere with it for another 4-6 weeks. If no improvement then I would advise you to get some specialist help

[andyho10]

back with update

ankle rehab going well with my right ankle feels pretty strong now but will continue to strengthen it but my left ankle which i sprained 3 months ago is still not healed.

it still hurts when i point my toes but only if i point it really hard, like if im trying to get the bottom of foot parallel to the ground, doing range of motion is fine....so is walking and bouncing on my toes. should i continue with rehab? if so what would the best exercise be to help this problem.

i also started doing some running aswell if this is ok.

[Heidi]

Hi
The pain is probably due to the ligaments which were damaged stretching at the very end of range.
If you haven't had any, some sports massage may help to imrpove elasticity and reduce scar tissue in the ligaments. Continue with rehab provided the exercises you are doing are not painful.