Acute Ankle Sprain

Below you will find advice as to how to deal with this injury – by becoming a member, you can
also access all our video advice.

Remember to have this confirmed by your sports doctor, or sports therapist.

You can diagnose other running injury’s here.

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Follow the information and Video advice below

Acute Ankle Sprain

  • This is where you cannot bear weight, or it is very difficult to bear weight on the foot. See your sports doctor or osteopath.
  • If you can bear some weight fairly well, then press here.
  • Rehabilitation at this stage concentrates on allowing the injury the time and the environment to heal.
  • Perform the ‘IMPORTANT’ and ‘OPTIONAL’ video advice below.
  • Before following the rehabilitation advice, read our treatment precautions here.
  • Use the RICE protocol (see videos below): Rest – don’t try to weight bear if you can’t, use crutches to help you partially weight bear (it is good to get back to weight bearing early as long as it is not causing a lot of pain). Ice – 20 minutes every hour for the first day and then 3-4 times per day until the swelling goes down. Compress the ankle using our compression taping technique. Elevate your foot whilst icing and compressing.
  • Once you can bear weight fairly well then you can proceed to STAGE 2 of rehabilitation.

Attention!

It is difficult to differentiate between a badly sprained ankle and an ankle fracture, so seek a medical opinion if you have the following:

  • Inability to walk on the ankle.
  • Significant swelling.
  • Pain in the foot or above the ankle.
  • Numbness in the toes.