Ankle joint pain- post exercise

[steeltiger62]

Hey guys,


First time poster and would greatly appreciate any feedback/ advice. Let me know if you need more details.


Injury history:
I have been running and playing basketball/ rugby most of my life. I'm 27 and have probably sprained my left ankle at least 8-10 times the last 12 years. Mostly lateral, with the odd medial sprain. Most of them are moderate sprains, some minor tweaks, a serious one in 2008 and January this year. I always do good rehab and re-training of the ankle and don't push too hard to return. Some say my ankles are unstable; I honestly feel they are fine and I've just had some rotten luck of standing on peoples shoes.






Current problem:
My left ankle joint aches and has random sharp pains after exercise (for a day or two.) The random pains are especially sharp if I'm rotating my ankle in full range of motion circles while bearing just slight weight pressure. i.e. sitting down while having the foot on ground.


This January, I had a severe lateral sprain on it while playing basketball. I saw my physio and spent the next 8-10 weeks in aggressive but gradual rehab. In around April/ May I started playing serious touch rugby again. By June I was feeling confident and playing at full pace. I continued doing proprioceptive training/ jumps/ force loading exercises in the gym. After every game or run I would ice the ankle for 15mins. The area around the anterior talo-fibular ligament would still be sore if I massaged it. My wife would give it a gentle massage and do some mobilization stuff for my ankle 2-3 times a week.


While the ankle didn't feel quite 100%, it felt pretty good during and after my sport. but functionally it wasn't affecting my movements and I was feeling pretty good.


But around July, the ankle started aching again after my games. At first it was really minor, so I didn't pay much attention to it. But it has gotten progressive worse. The aches and sharp pains (especially when I tried testing out the ROM with slight pressure) get quite strong. At it's worse I've had to hop on the other foot and sit down.


After 2-3 days, it seems to settle down a little, and it doesn't hurt at all when I'm running or playing touch rugby. I've run up to 10km and play 40mins of touch and have no ill effects... until after the game.


With all my sprains over the years; I've never experienced such nagging pain after exercise, especially since functionally I'm back at full strength (I think.)




My questions:


1. What might be causing this issue?


2. What could I do to improve it?


3. Any other resources/ people I could go to and find out more?




Much thanks in advance,

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[StatesPT]

Hi - not sure what it could be but because you can work it hard and not have pain during activity then you might try and figure out what specific movement or duration of movement set it off. Can you play one half of a game and not have pain after? Is it only rugby that brings on the pain later vs just running? If so then is it the deep ankle bend and forceful push off that might be the irritant during rugby? If so then you may want to focus on a particular exercise that improves tolerance for that particular movement. Do your own investigation and see what the culprit might be. Just a thought. -Best of health