You may feel ankle pain on the inside or outside of your ankle or along the Achilles tendon, which connects the muscles in your lower leg to your heel bone. Although mild ankle pain often responds well to home treatments, it can take time to resolve. Severe ankle pain should be evaluated by your doctor, especially if it follows an injury..
Causes
Common causes of ankle pain include:
- Achilles tendinitis
- Achilles tendon rupture
- Avulsion fracture
- Bone spurs
- Broken ankle/broken foot
- Bursitis
- Gout
- Osteoarthritis
- Pseudogout
- Reactive arthritis
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Septic arthritis
- Sprained ankle
- Sprains and strains
- Stress fractures
Physiotherapy treatment
Mobility, stretching & strengthening exercises
- Active plantar flexion and dorsi flexion
- Gastrocnemius stretch
- Resisted plantar flexion
- Resisted dorsiflexion
- Isometric eversion and inversion
- Resisted eccentric inversion
Prioprioception exercises
- Standing on one leg eyes open with
- Standing on one leg eyes open and arms by your side
- Standing on one leg eyes closed
- Standing on an unstable surface (such as a folded towel or cushion)
- Hopping
- Figure 8 Hopping
Functional exercises
Functional exercises start to load the ankle in a more sports specific way with more explosive type movements, direction changes and lateral or sideways movements.
- Lunges
- Heel toe walk
- Step back
- Hopping
- Resistance band jump
- Box jumps
- Sports specific drills