As the football season has progressed we’ve started to see a higher incidence of ankle injuries here at PhysioWorks. In our older players, they are suffering some ankle sprains and worse. Heel pain is also starting to ramp up in the younger ages.
While ankle injuries account for 40-45% of football injuries the mechanism of injury varies depending on the footballers age.
Heel pain in our youth is very common. It is especially so in the 8 to 12 year old bracket. It is related to overload on the heel growth plate and called Sever’s Disease. You’ll often see your child hobbling before they report any pain. Read more here about Sever’s Disease. You’ll find a few tips to help you better manage your child’s heel pain.
Older players tend to experience more traumatic injuries around the ankle. A sprained ankle is the most common injury when the ankle rolls excessively and overstretched your ankle ligaments. Ouch! I think many of us have sprained an ankle and recall the intense pain. There are commonly two types of sprained ankle and depending on which variety can mean the difference between playing next week and playing again in a month or two!
The more severe ankle injury is known as a high ankle sprain. It involves the ligaments between you two shin bones and in nasty cases involves your syndesmosis, which is a very important structure that stops you from dislocating your ankle. For more information about the two sprained ankle types please visit the links below. I’ve also included a few other conditions that we see in football players.
Enjoy your season
The PhysioWorks team