Even better is the fact that for the ankle-aware, such painful calamities are largely preventable. The two big bones in your lower leg, the tibia and fibula, meet your ankle at the talus bone, which sits atop the calcaneus, or heel bone. When an ankle goes too far one way or the other, a sprain results. Whether you're the injured one or you're trying to help someone else with a bum ankle, assessing severity is relatively simple. Now study the ankle.
Tenderness means injury.
Carefully move the ankle through its range of motion. Moving your foot and the damaged ligaments causes pain, but there's little swelling, bruising, or instability. With proper care and taping you can keep hiking and will be back to normal in one to two weeks. With a second-degree injury, partially torn ligaments quickly swell and cause bruising. The pain may discourage you from moving your foot, and complete healing can take as long as six weeks.