Right Ankle Lateral Ligament Complex Sprain

An athlete's swollen right ankle is shown in the photo above. He had twisted his ankle while landing awkwardly from a jump in the morning. It did not swell up much as he had applied RICE treatment and had it wrapped with crepe bandage. (Note: Do not massage a new ankle injury as it would worsen the swelling and pain).

I examined his ankle and found that he had a partially torn ATFL ligament and lots of soft tissue swelling in the outer part of his ankle. He also had pain when he plantarflexed or inverted his foot. There was difficulty balancing on his right ankle due to the loss of sense of position and balance (proprioception).

He was able to walk with a slight limp due to the pain but he was advised to rest from footwork or excessive walking for a few days. He was given an option to use an Aircast ankle brace to provide additional support. After applying RICE therapy for 3 days, there was only minimal swelling and he could walk normally. Although, the foot looked almost normal, he still had to undergo rehabilitation exercises to strengthen and provide the normal proprioception in his ankle. It often takes up to 4-8 weeks for rehabilitation of an ankle lateral sprain.