The ankle joint: rehabilitation training and prevention

Long-lasting ankle problems: this diagnosis has already forced some soccer players to end or cut back their careers.

And as always, when a soccer player has to hang up his boots involuntarily, you feel for him. All the wonderful moments that sport, soccer and the dressing room give you – with one blow to the ankle, they're over.

Today, we'll show you in more detail how you can protect yourself from ankle injuries in the long term and what you should do in the worst case.

Kinglsey Coman's injury list as a professional soccer player is long, including at least six (!) documented ankle injuries alone. From capsule injuries, to torn lateral ligaments, to syndesmosis ligament injuries with subsequent surgery - one more, Coman said, and he would voluntarily declare his career over.

As speculative as it may be to think about where Coman would be by now or what he would have achieved without these injuries, it basically just shows how serious, chronic and grueling constant injuries to the ankle musculoskeletal system are. 

And if even a professional at the highest level seems to resign, how will it be for the countless amateur athletes worldwide, whose path without high-end medicine is even more difficult.

Everyone has that one teammate: he's constantly shuttling between being sick and being on the field; between crutches and making the final pass. Statistics show that the risk of secondary injuries increases with every damage to the ankle ligaments.

In other words, anyone who has ever suffered an ankle injury is more susceptible to it. 

This creates a vicious circle that many soccer players are often unable to escape. What is usually missing in this case is sufficient neuronal control of the joint. This can also wear you down mentally.

By the way, this does not primarily mean the clean one-leg stand on a wobble board. This neuro-centered approach is basically about starting where movement originates – in the central nervous system (CNS). With targeted training exercises, movement sequences can be optimized and weak points that are not visible to the eye can be eliminated.

With the comeback program for the ankle, you can benefit from the professional knowledge of our Bundesliga experts and work specifically on your return.

Like the other training programs for injuries, this one also relies on the procedure "confirmed diagnosis – professional physiotherapy – comeback".

This means that only those who have been diagnosed with an injury by a doctor and have been treated by a physiotherapist can take advantage of this training option.

After the neuronal healing phase, mobilizing, strengthening and finally dynamic elements will be implemented bit by bit into the individual units in your daily training routine. In principle, everything a soccer player needs to come back even stronger after an injury break.

The fact that injuries to the ankle musculoskeletal system occur in soccer is probably not breaking news. But the fact that, according to statistics, it is the most frequently injured joint, at 20 percent, is. More than almost any other sport, soccer has undergone enormous changes in the last decade.

The days when "der Kaiser" could stroll from his own sixteen to far into the opponent's half without a duel, play an irresistible out-of-bounds pass and then trot comfortably back to his libero position are definitely over.

Pressing, counter-pressing and defending across the entire pitch – the mileage of today's players has exploded. But it's not just the abundance of kilometers reeled off that has increased enormously, but also the so-called "hard runs" (i.e. explosive sprints). More mileage, significantly more dynamism, and significantly tougher tackling – all this puts the ankle under constant stress. When poor field conditions are added to this, the joint has to withstand a lot – often too much.