My Injured Ankle

The Ankle


The ankle is a complex mechanism. What we normally think of as the ankle is actually made up of two joints: the subtalar joint; and the true ankle joint.

The true ankle joint is composed of three bones: the tibia which forms the inside, or medial, portion of the ankle; the fibula which forms the lateral, or outside, portion of the ankle; and the talus underneath. The true ankle joint is responsible for up and down motion of the foot.

Beneath the true ankle joint is the second part of the ankle, the subtalar joint, which consists of the talus on top and calcaneus on the bottom. The subtalar joint allows side to side motion of the foot.

The ends of the bones in these joints are covered by articular cartilage. The major ligaments of the ankle are: the anterior tibiofibular ligament, which connects the tibia to the fibula; the lateral collateral ligaments, which attach the fibula to the calcaneus and gives the ankle lateral stability; and, on the medial side of the ankle, the deltoid ligaments, which connect the tibia to the talus and calcaneus and provide medial stability.

These components of your the, along with the muscles and tendons of the lower leg, work together to handle the stress the ankle receives as you walk, run and jump.



My Ankle

The problem that I have is that, due to going over on my ankle so often when I played rugby, I have damaged my lateral collateral ligaments. This means that I have little to maintain my lateral stability. So when I half stepped in a pot hole on Monday 21st March the inside of my leg, the tibia bone, went crashing down onto the talus bone.  I believe that this may have damaged the articular cartilage and the deltoid ligaments. What I do know for certain is that it’s painful but not too bad, until I put weight on it and try to run, even on a tread mill.

I’ve been informed that it normally takes about eight weeks to repair. I’m seeing the physiotherapist twice a week and receiving ultrasound treatment on it. Although there seems to be little consensus oh how the treatment works it has been used to by therapists over the last 50 years to treat soft tissue injuries.

In the meantime I’m more concerned about the effect it has rather than the science behind it. It’s not all bad through as I have increased my cycling to compensate, at least partly, for my lack of running.