Question

Scenario #1:

A soccer athlete is returning to play after a six month layoff and rehab from a broken ankle. The PT has cleared them to begin practice. As the Athletic Trainer what precautios are you going to recommend making this return successful?

Answer 1

For the healing of a fracture of the bone, it takes around 6 weeks. In this scenario, the soccer athlete already completed the six-month layoff with rehabilitation from the broken ankle. Now he is ready to start the athlete again but it should start with precaution. This will helps to make to fully recover from the functional activities and increase to the previous level of activities.  During the rehabilitation, the physical therapy mostly provide exercise to improve the mobility and safety return to the normal activities. In this scenario, as the patient completed rehabilitation, the soccer athlete is ready to do the normal activities.

The precausion to be taken while resuming the normal activities is that while practicing the athlete, the trainer should start the trainer from the beginning same like for the beginner athlete. The task should be less heavy for some weeks before practicing heavy task.