Hello,

I have searched the forum and can find little on the subject I am about to cover.

I detached my medial ankle ligament (sometimes known as the deltoid ligament) while playing football, or soccer to you Americans, in Feb 2009. I shall spare everyone the full details however essentially in July 2009 I had an operation to reattach my medial ligament. The op went successfully and I am now on the road to recovery. Unfortunately I also damaged the cartilage on the lateral side of the ankle (unclear as to whether this occurred at the time of injury or in the delay between injury and surgery) which had to be removed. A hole was drilled in my bone, in a process I believe is called micro-fracture, to stimulate growth of poorer quality fibro cartilage.

My issue is that it is now more than 4 months since the op and I feel my recovery has not progressed very well. The main problem stems from the fact that a medial ankle detachment is extremely rare. I have seen 3 experienced physiotherapists, one with over 30 years practice, and not one of them has even encountered a patient who has had a medial ankle reattachment. My problems are compounded by the fact that 2 of these physiotherapists disagree on how to control my rehab; one believes I should be trying to run while the other thinks I am in no such shape to be attempting to run! I’ve tried doing a literature search on the internet however this search has proved fruitless.

Has any physio on this forum ever rehabbed a patient who has had a medial ankle ligament detachment? I would like answers to relatively simple questions such as what rehab I should be doing, will I make a full recovery and if so how long should it take.

If anyone needs further information please do not hesitate to ask. Plus I do realise that every patient has their own case history and no 2 injuries are the same!

Forgot to add I'm 28 years old.


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