How to manage an ankle sprain

Jul 3, 2022

Take care: Ankle injuries are not always innocuous. Photo by Cath Grey

As many football and netball leagues pass the halfway mark of the season, wear and tear will increasingly take a toll on players, including common injuries such as an ankle strain. Despite a belief in the playing ranks that such injuries are relatively innocuous, local physio Pat Arnold still encourages us to take these knocks seriously. Today he takes us through the best ways to manage an ankle strain.

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‘’It's just a rolled ankle, I'll be fine,’’ is the sort of thing you might hear a local football or netball player say as they use crutches to get around after an injury.

There is certainly a culture of not taking ankle sprains too seriously across all sports Australians love to play. While it is true that not every ankle sprain is a major problem, some can be, so it is super important to manage them appropriately.

Keep reading and I'll run you through a couple of basic things you can do to ensure you get back to your sport feeling 100 per cent as soon as possible.

Firstly, get your ankle assessed by an expert to get an accurate diagnosis. The most common injury after a sprain is damage to the small ligaments on the outside of the ankle that get stretched when it rolls in.

While a high-grade injury to these ligaments might cost you a few weeks on the sidelines, there are several more nasty injuries that, if present, need to be found fast.

Bone fractures, cartilage injuries, tendon ruptures and even the dreaded 'syndesmosis' (more on that one next week) all hobble into my clinic every winter and need specific and fast management. This could include imaging, a boot, crutches or a referral to a surgeon.

My second tip is to always complete a rehab program after an ankle sprain. Studies have found that after one bad ankle injury, up to 70 per cent of athletes go on to develop ankle instability. This is when their ankle is prone to rolling again and again and again, affecting performance and increasing the risk of subsequent serious injury.

‘’Well there's probably not much I can do, I stretched my ligaments so my ankle is now loose,’’ is what you might think if you are in this situation. Well, it turns out this is not true.

A recent study that followed people after a bad ankle sprain found it was not the athletes with stretched ligaments who went on to have troubles. Rather it was those with weak or slow to react muscles around their ankle that went on to re-roll their ankles many times.

These changes to your muscles happen quickly after injury and do not spontaneously return as your pain goes. However, these muscles can be re-trained with a good rehab program that includes balance, strength and plyometric exercises.

So please take your ankle injuries seriously this season. Get them assessed and make sure you retrain your muscles so you don't have problems in the future.