Wales National Team soccer(football) player, and Club Tottenham Hotspur player rolled his ankle last weekend during a slide tackle on the field. Not a career-ending injury, but definitely a season-ending one.
Ankle injuries are too common a problem, especially in athletes changing speeds and directions. The basic mechanism of an ankle injury is a forced twisting/rolling in, or a forced twisting/rolling out of the ankle.
Before we go on, let's briefly discuss the ankle joint bones and ligaments. There are 2 bones that make up the ankle joint, the talus bone and the tibia bone. The talus and the tibia bones come together and are supported by soft tissue structures, AKA joint capsule, on all sides. This joint capsule holds the ankle joint together and supports the ankle joint movements. The joint capsule is made up of individual ligaments on the inside and outside of the ankle joint, that contain or support the ankle joint itself.
The joint capsule/ankle ligaments around the ankle joint resist too much motion in the ankle joint, with the goal of protecting the ankle joint against injury. BUT, sometimes the force is greater than the strength of the ligaments, and the ligaments fail. How do they fail? They fail by stretching, tearing, or rupturing off of the bone. And sometimes, if the force is so great that the ligaments rupture off of the bone, the bones may break! In as many as 4 different places in the ankle, and occasionally in the foot as well!
In Bale's circumstance, the forced twisting of his ankle joint was so powerful that the ankle ligaments failed, and ripped off of the bone. In young athletic individuals as Bale, it is often necessary to reattach the ankle ligament to the bone in the operating room. Sometimes the ligament is so shredded that surgeons make a new ankle ligament from tendon to replace what was damaged. When the most destructive type of ankle injury occurs and fractures, surgeons must put the pieces back together with plates, screws, pins, and rods. Let's hope this isn't the case for Garet Bale.
For more information about ankle injuries, treatments, etc, visit our website at www.podiatristofnaples.com
