Ankle distorsions part II; How to know the severity of the ankle injury?

Start with finding out if the player can take a number of steps after the injury. If the answer is yes, no need for an X-ray directly. However, the foot must be wrapped tightly directly – compression is the most important treatment in the acute stage – and then wrapped medium to hard after 20 minutes. The foot may not be unwrapped the first 48 hours at all. If a sports medicine knowledgeable physical therapist / chiropractor / doctor is on site; he or she should also palpate the foot and check the areas that are common for fractures to exclude that possibility.

After 4-7 days you can test the foot for anatomical stability - ie testing the ligaments. You can check the skin for bleeding earlier – that provides you information on whether the injured ligaments and joint capsule could be ruptured. Unfortunately, examination of anatomical stability before these 4-7 days does not give reliable results.

If reduced mobility and joint-play is found, that would make me suspect the possibility of swelling in the joint, which, if the athlete is unlucky, could depend on a blow to the cartilage inside the ankle joint. Increased pressure on the joint will of course aggravate the pain and prolong the healing, and the ability to start running and jumping will take much longer. In this case, the foot should be X-rayed to rule out small bone chips loose in the area (but not acute - better if a few days pass, as the damage is usually more visible on x-ray).

How should the foot be rehabilitated? And how long is the rehabilitation? When can the athlete return to normal training and play games again? Information and discussion on this topic in the coming posts!