ORIF fractured lateral malleolus recovery time

I fractured my right lateral malleolus playing football 11 days ago. It was classified as a Weber C and I had ORIF on it 4 days ago - 6 screws and a plate in my leg. I was originally told that I was going to be 12 weeks out before being able to play football again, but in the surgery they decided that my ligament was unstable and put a screw joining my fibia and tibia together. They now think I will be 18 weeks. 6 weeks in a cast, 2 weeks of partial weightbearing, the screw stabilising my ligaments removed at 8-10 weeks, then 8-10 weeks of physio. I just wondered if someone could give me feedback regarding when I will be able to start walking/running again and when Ill be able to return to training for football as Im getting pretty nervous about it! Im young, fit and healthy (good diet, dont smoke or drink) so was wondering if the 18 week timeframe is realistic seeing as everyone Ive spoke to with similar injuries has been out for 6-8 months!

Sounds as a reasonable time to me.
Not so sure about the meaning of the classification of your fracture, anyway, usually ankle fractures are stabilised in roughly 6-7 weeks but here you had also a ligament problem and that can take from a minimum of 3 weeks up to 4-6 months depending about how bad the situation was (sounds like yours wasn't too nasty). A lot will depend from the rehab too.

Work hard during the rehab and you may gain a couple of weeks!

All the best