Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] Hi, I rolled my right ankle about 4 weeks ago. After about 2-3 weeks of rest and icing my right ankle, it felt pretty good. Good enough to start jogging again. I could walk and jog with no pain. On the forth week I tried to get back into soccer. Before the game I laced up my shoes and ankle brace then stood straight up to go for a jog. Immediately when I stood up I noticed a sharp ripping pain, across the bottom of my shin maybe near the top of the extensor tendons (if that s the right name for it, the tendon attached to the tibia), moving from the outside to the inside of my foot. I tried loosening the ankle brace but still the ripping pain continued when I stood up. I completely loosened the ankle brace and the ripping pain left and I could jog again. I decided not to play and started to examine the pain. The ripping pain only occurs when I over-extend my right leg or when I am standing/extending my leg and touch/grab my lower shin/upper ankle area. I had an X-Ray done on my lower leg/ankle but I haven t heard back from the doctor so I figured there wasn t any issues with my bones or ligaments. That leads me to believe it is a partial tear(s) in the muscle or tendon. Could you please give me a general idea if I need to have it surgically repaired or will I be able to continue resting and wait it out and eventually it will heal properly all on its own? Thanks Adam Cyr
[|AI|]  Hello, What I understand from the history is there is a probable ligament Injury and to rule out this we need to do some special clinical test and maybe an MRI to understand the extent of the ligament injury around the ankle which is very common.  Now x-rays are something which cannot reveal anything about the ligaments or muscles but only the bones. For soft tissues, we need to depend upon the CT or MRI scan. If this is the ligament injury then post knowing the extent of the ligament injury we have to decide either surgery is needed or not.  In most cases no surgery is advised. With proper physical therapy and sports retraining of the ankle the player can go back to the game. This method takes some time but definitely provide excellent results. Being a Sports therapy specialist I have seen cases, and they have recovered much better and still, in sports, they are now. Now you mentioned using a brace and trying to wear sports shoes and pain started this is common as the muscle will be restricted that will the major cause of the pain. Coming to muscles of the foot, we need to understand that muscles undergo physiological and mechanical changes due to injury to a ligament.  Some are stronger and some are weaker.  We need to figure out the weaker ones and find out the exercises which suit well for the entire group of muscles to equally function for stabilizing the ankle joint while in sports. Try to meet up some good sports therapist, or maybe you can provide me with more details, so I can help you much precisely. Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further. Take care Jay In Chat Doctor.