This basketball season we’ve been covering the numerous ankle sprains across the NBA. From Danny Granger, to Joakim Noah, to Ray Allen, there have been a lot of serious ankle injuries this season.
But why do so many professional players sprain their ankles so often? To answer that question, let’s go over the top 5 reasons people get ankle sprains.
- History. If you’ve had a Grade 2 or 3 ankle sprain before, you have a higher risk of spraining the ankle again. Basically your ankle will have excess mechanical laxity and be too loose to tolerate landing on uneven ground. This is called ankle instability. Some people live with this every day. They can trip over anything and roll the ankle, get up and wonder why it didn’t hurt. The ligaments are completely incompetent and thus, when they roll there is no further tearing. In higher energy rerolls, the ankle bones bump and the tendons are subjected to stress. Eventually, arthritis and tendon tearing develops. While you can live with an unstable ankle and even function at a very high level, eventually it will catch up with you.
- Foot Shape (Biomechanics). High arches, inverted heels, and even in-toeing can be a source of repetitive sprains.
- Nerve Injury. If you have injury to the nerves that serve the outside of the ankle, you won’t feel your ankle as it starts to roll and you won’t be able to catch it in time.
- Peroneal Tendon Tears. Tendon fraying makes it challenging to dynamically stabilize the ankle and stop a roll once it starts. And almost every patient with a peroneal tendon tear has ankle instability from a previous sprain.
- Poor Shoe Wear Choices. Recent trends with shoe companies have been to build lighter weight shoes while sacrificing stability. Shoes like Ektio have extra features that stabilize the foot and ankle and are clearly superior to anything else on the market. High heels for women are not good shoes for walking any distance or over anything but flat terrain (even then it’s tough).