With The Rugby World Cup now come to an end a couple of weeks ago… We’ve seen a lot of patients who are huge fans of the sport, play a game of Rugby for fun at the weekends to keep it going.
And with playing any contact sport, comes the increased chance of injuries, aches and pains.
Now one of my patients Gareth, 42, Darlington, has played Rugby for most of his life.
He’s used to getting knocked about on the pitch and waking up with all sorts of bruises.
But 3 months ago Gareth rolled on his ankle during a match, forcing him to stop playing all together because it was that painful.
Before Gareth came to see me he visited his local GP, who gave him a couple of exercises to do for a few weeks without taking a good look at his ankle…
And even though you should mix specific exercises into your day to help ease your ankle pain, these exercises weren’t making much of a difference, and Gareth was getting fed up of not being able to play Rugby for weeks, even MONTHS!
(Which really doesn’t have to be the case).
The thing is with ankle injuries, is that they can take time to heal. Sometimes even up to 6 weeks.
And if you’re not taking the most efficient, safest steps to get there, then the healing process can end up taking longer, meaning you could be out of playing your favourite sport for a while.
It’s important to start the recovery process straight away, to return to exercise as safely and as quickly as possible.
So with that said…
What’s The First Thing You Should Do To Ease Your Ankle Pain?
Rest your ankle immediately and compress it with ice.
I know it’s very common wisdom to think that you should just ‘push through’ and carry on with the sport you’re playing, but if you get back to activity too soon, there’s a risk of causing on-going problems and I’m sure you don’t want to aggravate your ankle even more, putting you out for longer.
After 3-4 days of resting the joint, begin gentle walking.
Now walking might feel slightly painful – but don’t worry! That’s expected and is completely ok! Gentle walking in a straight line will help to build your ankle strength back up and help keep it mobile.
Alongside rest and gentle activity, a deep massage around the area will help your ankle to recover quickly too.
So my big tip for you, is to not rush back into sport straight away.
I know it’s tempting, but if you follow the right steps to recover from your sports injury properly, you’ll be back to playing your sport in no time.
If you’d like to know about what to do to recover quick from sports injuries, simply click here: www.paulgoughphysio.com/sports-injury-clinic where there is a free special report waiting for you to download instantly and start copying the “the 7 secret recovery strategies that only the pro-athletes know and use”.
Or you can click here too 🙂 :
You might know Paul as an expert Columnist who writes weekly health articles for TWO of the North East's biggest daily Newspapers, The Northern Echo And The Hartlepool Mail, he is a regular Speaker at Industry Seminars around the globe and a Radio Personality, often heard on the BBC. Paul has been an expert guest on dozens of Radio shows and regularly interviewed in newspapers, magazines and trade journals all over the world, including the Guardian.
Paul’s background included working extensively in the Premier League with a Top Professional Football Team, and since quitting his job in Professional Football in 2007, his Physio Practice has become the fastest growing in the UK and biggest in the North East. So successful, that companies like BUPA, ASDA, The Vela Group And Coast & Country, repeatedly retain his Physio company's services to keep healthy their own staff and workforce. Paul Gough Physio Rooms is now a large multi-physio, multi clinic speciality practice in Darlington, Durham, Guisborough and Hartlepool.
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