Torn ligament in ankle - How long to heal?

[Nicholas]

OK so, yesterday my friend and I were playing basketball. Suddenly, he suffered a freak ankle injury. Scans showed a torn ligament in the ankle. Does anyone know how long it will take to heal? He's on crutches and he only has a minor ankle brace and he will get a major one when the swelling settles down. For the moment, I was wondering if anyone knew how long it would take to heal.
Cheers,
Nicholas

[kjwilkin]

OK so, yesterday my friend and I were playing basketball. Suddenly, he suffered a freak ankle injury. Scans showed a torn ligament in the ankle. Does anyone know how long it will take to heal? He's on crutches and he only has a minor ankle brace and he will get a major one when the swelling settles down. For the moment, I was wondering if anyone knew how long it would take to heal.
Cheers,
Nicholas

Hi there,

It really depends on how bad the sprain is.

He should start off with icing and go and seek some professional advice to get the appropriate treatment.

I've had an ankle reconstruction but that was because I had recurrent ankle sprains and became very unstable.

Hope your friends makes a quick recovery.

[Nicholas]

It was actually 2 torn ligaments in the ankle.

[Mischap123]

Hi, ditto to what kjwilkin advised. See someone. Not only do you need guidance in how to look after it, but scar tissue needs to be broken up. Proprioception(positon sense/balance) and strength also need to be attended to as to avoid recurrances which may lead to recurrent instability and ultimately surgery.

[mcculloughfloss]

Hi, I was playing tennis last year and tore all the ligaments in my left ankle too. It was fat as and very brusied so i went to the hospital who put a cast up the bak of my ankle and bandaged it on. That was on for a week and then my ankle took about a month for the swelling to go down. I couldnt walk on it for about 5 weeks, then it was a a limp. my ankle still isnt back to its normal self, and still tender on the outer side. although i still play netball and tennis, it isnt 100% and i wear an ankle brace. go and see a good physio and get as much rehad on it as you can (well, your friend can) even though they will move it til it hurts, thats a good thing because otherwise it will stay the same and the ankle wont be able to move at all. that was my problem, the rehab hurt and my physio didnt push it enough. does that help?

[Nicholas]

Hi, I was playing tennis last year and tore all the ligaments in my left ankle too. It was fat as and very brusied so i went to the hospital who put a cast up the bak of my ankle and bandaged it on. That was on for a week and then my ankle took about a month for the swelling to go down. I couldnt walk on it for about 5 weeks, then it was a a limp. my ankle still isnt back to its normal self, and still tender on the outer side. although i still play netball and tennis, it isnt 100% and i wear an ankle brace. go and see a good physio and get as much rehad on it as you can (well, your friend can) even though they will move it til it hurts, thats a good thing because otherwise it will stay the same and the ankle wont be able to move at all. that was my problem, the rehab hurt and my physio didnt push it enough. does that help?

Geez. Sounds painful. His torn ligament healed 2 weeks from when I started this thread. Thanks for your reply.

[Rob N]

Ankle injury sufferers:
Back in my youth, I severely sprained my ankle playing basketball after landing on another player's foot (turned black up the side of my lower leg). Since it was playoff time, I had it taped and played two playoff games including a double overtime game knowing that I had the offseason to recover. It took three months for the swelling to go down. Over that summer, I strengthened the ankle with a homemade ankle machine that was available at the gym. The "machine" was simply a welded metal cross with a wooden foot cutout strapped to the middle of where the bars cross. The cross sat with the north/south bar in grooves on a narrow rectangular wooden box. The box was designed with very low sides to allow the bar to swivel left and right. You strapped your foot onto the foot cutout and placed a free weight on the bar that projected sideways away from your outside edge of the foot. The weight would tip your foot/ankle sideways toward the ground. The exercise was simply to use your ankle to pull the bar back to level, and then let it back down, repeating for 3 sets of 10 and gradually increasing the weight. By the end of the summer my ankle was stronger than pre-injury and I never have had another problem with it. Depending on the ankle injury, the exercise I described may or may not work the problem area. But I mention it because I had great success with this approach to ankle strengthening and to emphasize that it is very important to find some sort of resistance training to isolate this difficult area.
Rob N.

[Nicholas]

I think that could have been a Grade 3-4 sprain. Grade 1-2 sprains aren't usually serious. Andrew Johns from the Newcastle nights only missed 1 game after suffering a Grade 1 sprain but they usually take 4-8 weeks. Grade 3-4 sprains take a few months usually and can sometimes require surgery to put a pin into the ankle.

[netballer]

I tore 2 ligament in my right ankle after a freck swimming accident. They were conplete tears. i was out of all sports for three weeks. I was able to walk on the ankle very slowly and the physio wanted to me to walk rather than rest it. I was am still strapping for centain things and after christmas I will work on gaining the strenght back in my leg and ankle. I too wear braces when playing netball I have weak ankle after a serious of operation because of feet disablities. This roll I did just over 4 months ago and I am just getting back to full fitness. (apart from the d*mm neck injury I have just done) I am glad that I have two months off sports now, but apart from saying that it doesn't mean that running and walking stops.

[frostie15]

Ankle injury sufferers:
Back in my youth, I severely sprained my ankle playing basketball after landing on another player's foot (turned black up the side of my lower leg). Since it was playoff time, I had it taped and played two playoff games including a double overtime game knowing that I had the offseason to recover. It took three months for the swelling to go down. Over that summer, I strengthened the ankle with a homemade ankle machine that was available at the gym. The "machine" was simply a welded metal cross with a wooden foot cutout strapped to the middle of where the bars cross. The cross sat with the north/south bar in grooves on a narrow rectangular wooden box. The box was designed with very low sides to allow the bar to swivel left and right. You strapped your foot onto the foot cutout and placed a free weight on the bar that projected sideways away from your outside edge of the foot. The weight would tip your foot/ankle sideways toward the ground. The exercise was simply to use your ankle to pull the bar back to level, and then let it back down, repeating for 3 sets of 10 and gradually increasing the weight. By the end of the summer my ankle was stronger than pre-injury and I never have had another problem with it. Depending on the ankle injury, the exercise I described may or may not work the problem area. But I mention it because I had great success with this approach to ankle strengthening and to emphasize that it is very important to find some sort of resistance training to isolate this difficult area.
Rob N.

Hey rob, you think you could send me a picture of this machine to cjfrost97@gmail.com (as its hard to grasp what it looks like)