Ankle Arthrpscopy - what can I do to play sports again?

Hi,

After some advice. I had a break/disloaction of my ankle a few years ago, and returned to playing rugby/football afterwards, albeit with some pain. I saw a specialist this summer who advised I had some cartilage floating in the joint and needed an arthroscopy to remove this. I had this op a few weeks ago, and saw him for a follow up lat week, when he told me he had to drill into the bone marrow to create a scab to replace the lost cartilage. He then dropped the bombshell that as this was a temporary fix, I should refrain from impact sports in future.

My question is what can I do to play football/rugby again, even occasionally? I have read that losing weight is a good thing to do to reduce the stress, so am underway with this now, but are there any sepcific shoes, insoles, ankle supports etc I can use to reduce the imapct through the ankle joint?

Has anyone else had this op, and if so, what level of exercise did you get back to....

Don't want to retire from Rugby and Football just yet!

Thanks!