An ankle sprain happens very easily, you step awkwardly on rough ground or miss your footing coming down from a pavement…and agony strikes! The ligament on the side of the ankle is overstretched when you go over quickly on it, and some of the fibres are torn off.
It can swell quite quickly, so if you can elevate it and put an ice pack over the injury site for 5 minutes, then get a compression bandage on it, you will be preventing some of the swelling occurring. This will slow down the internal bleeding, and reduce the recovery time.
After that, see a Chartered Physiotherapist for assessment, advice and treatment. They will guide you as to how much weight to put on your leg, depending on the severity of the sprain. You will also learn what exercises to do and Physiotherapy treatment will reduce the pain for you.
As treatment progresses, balance exercises are usually incorporated into treatment. This is important because the balance receptors are knocked out during the injury and need to be ‘rebooted’ to prevent you going over on your ankle again.
Treatment is usually very successful and retuning to normal should happen in a few weeks.
