Triathlon2Win

It was warm sunny evening back in August 2010, when I sprained my ankle.  Playing touch rugby on the uneven surface of Regents Park in London, I rolled over in pain.  Right there and then I started RICE recovery straight away.  That’s Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation (RICE) treatment.  I had an x-ray at Accident & Emergency the next morning to confirm no broken bones.

I thought after a few weeks of rest and I should be back up running and training in no time.  Unfortunately after two months, I still had swelling around the joint and my physio treatment (with ultra-sound) wasn’t helping with my recovery.  I tried another sports physio who had over two years of football physio experience.  He had seen a lot of sprained ankle injuries and said that physio treatment may not help fix this type of injury, because there was so much instability and movement in my ankle.

To get to the bottom of this I needed to get an MRI scan and the results indicated that I had a complete tear of the ATFL and partial tears of both the PTFL and CFL ligaments.  Having decided not to choose the operation route, I’ll be sticking to a rigid physio plan of daily exercise to slowly build up my muscle strength and proprioception, through ankle movement and balance exercises. 

Over the next 8 weeks, I’ll be doing 20 minutes of exercise every day to help with the recovery process.  As far as triathlon training goes, both cycling and swimming will be fine and with running, I’ll make sure to keep the foot immobilised with ankle strapping.

After six months of research and talking to professionals, I have discovered the five main techniques to strengthen and improve ankle balance.  Once you have finished the RICE recovery method, try using these five exercises to improve recovery time to sprained ankle.  These exercises can also help prevent ankle injuries:

1. On one foot slowly raise up and down bending the knee x 15 times.  If required use wall for balance.
2. On one foot slowly raise on to your toes and hold for 5 seconds x 15 times. Use wall for balance.
3. Walk on tip toes back and forth for 1 minute and then on your heels for 1 minute.
4. With no support, balance on one foot and try to keep steady.  Try the same exercise and close your eyes.  Hold for 1 minute.
5. Use a wobble board or balance board with slow movement back and forth for 2 minutes.

There is a lot of work to be done before I can start playing touch rugby again, but hopefully I’ll be back up and ready for when the season begins.  The same applies to hockey, tennis and squash or any sport where there a sudden switch in movement is required.

My doctors prognosis is that I shouldn’t need to have surgery to sew up the torn ligament, but if I keep rolling over on my ankle then it should be a serious consideration.  Hopefully, that won’t be required and my training regime will strengthen my ankle to the level where I can safely play fast movement sports again.