Ankle Pain

Why am I experiencing ankle pain?

Ankle pain can be a right nuisance. It can prevent you from doing what you want to do, whether that be your general daily activities, work, exercise, or sports, which can be highly frustrating.

Ankle pain can come on gradually, often due to repetitive exercise, such as walking, running, cycling, or sports involving lots of twisting, pivoting and repetitive jumping.

Ankle pain can also come on after a specific incident, such as rolling your ankle, twisting it awkwardly, or a fall.

Ankle pain is typically due to either a ligament sprain, wear and tear of the ankle joint, a muscular strain, Achilles tendinopathy, or a fracture.

A ligament sprain happens when a ligament is overstretched. Minor injuries may only overstretch a ligament, while more severe injuries may involve partial or complete tears in the ligament.

Wear and tear of the ankle joint is a natural process that happens as you age. There are 4 stages of wear and tear. The first stage is where the cartilage in your ankle joint starts to thin. The second stage is where the joint space in the ankle begins to narrow, and the cartilage begins to break down. The third stage is where the joint space becomes even narrower, and gaps in the cartilage can appear. The final stage is where the joint space is greatly reduced, the loss of cartilage reaches beyond 60%, and large bony spurs form.

A muscular strain happens when a muscle is overstretched. Minor injuries may only overstretch a muscle, while more severe injuries may involve partial or complete tears in the muscle.

Achilles tendinopathy is where the Achilles tendon attaching to the back of your heel becomes overloaded, resulting in certain changes to the tendon, including swelling, stiffness, inflammation, micro-tears and a reduced blood supply.

A fracture is where you break a bone in your ankle. This can typically affect either your tibia, fibular, talus, or calcaneal bone.

As I’m sure you’re beginning to realise, there are such a wide range of potential causes for your ankle pain.

Is there anything that can be done to make my ankle pain better?

You might have tried resting your ankle, stretching, hot or cold packs, taking painkillers, or seeing your GP, yet your ankle pain simply won’t go away.

But rest assured, there is a solution. Physiotherapy is a safe and effective solution for ankle pain. Our experts have helped countless amounts of people to overcome their ankle pain and get back to living a pain free lifestyle.

Your therapist will first need to undertake an assessment, to effectively diagnose and help you to understand why you’re experiencing ankle pain.

Your therapist will then put a comprehensive treatment plan in place to help you to overcome your ankle pain and fully achieve your goals, supporting you at every step along the way.

This treatment plan will comprise an array of treatments, including expert ergonomic, postural, and sleeping advice, hands on therapy, and exercises to do at home, all tailored towards your specific ankle pain.

How long is it going to take for my ankle to get better?

Unfortunately, there isn’t a quick magical fix for ankle pain.

A typical recovery journey for ankle pain will last around 3-6 months.

If you wish to get rid of your ankle pain for good, there are 8 key stepping stones that make up your recovery journey.

It’s important that each stepping stone is ticked off, to allow you to not only fully recover from your ankle pain, but to prevent recurrence of your ankle pain in the future.

For the vast majority of clients who present to us with ankle pain, we find that it typically takes around 6-8 appointments to tick off all of these stepping stones. Some injuries require a little less, others a little more.

You might only have to tick off a few of the stepping stones, which would lead to a shorter recovery journey, but if you need to tick them all off, this will require a longer recovery journey.

How much will it cost?

Your initial appointment with us will cost £79. Each follow up treatment will cost £59. If you wish to see a Senior Therapist, the appointments will cost £89 and £69 respectively.

How do I start my recovery journey?

To begin recovering from your ankle pain, give us a call on 02381300260 and ask to book in for a Physiotherapy Initial Appointment.

Alternatively, you can book online, by clicking on the book now button below. On our online booking page, the appointment you need to select is the ‘Physiotherapy – Initial Appointment’.