Recent Advances in Exercise Intervention for Athletes with Ankle Injury

Abstract

Ankle sprain reported among 16%-40% of all sports-related injuries and most common frequent lower limb injury among athletes. It is particularly prevalent in soccer, American football, and basketball. The most commonly injured ligament is the lateral ligaments especially anterior talofibular ligament and quite a large percentage of patients report persistent symptoms and experience recurrent injuries. To prevent injuries and instability around ankle joint, various interventions evidenced are immobilization, cryotherapy, compression, elevation, analgesics, bracing, foot orthosis, exercises, electrophysical methods, and surgical interventions. Among these therapies physical exercises and splints are highly recommended across levels of rehabilitation. PubMed was used for literature search and articles on randomized control trail, systematic reviews and meta-analysis between 2017 to 2022 were included. Articles on advanced physiotherapy management for ankle injuries were included. Results from reviewing 6 RCT reported progressive exercises training significantly improved flexibility, strength, endurance, agility and balance in the ankle complex. Exercise techniques targeting the ligaments, muscle and structures around ankle joint based on the clinical presentation can lead to improved ankle joint performance in individuals diagnosed with ankle instability. Keywords: Ankle injury, Ankle sprain, Exercise, Instablity