About two weeks ago I started to feel tenderness under my left foot from the heel-arch to the heel-ball area. Things got worst a few days later with the tenderness spreading to the tendons and ligaments surrounding the ankle joint. So, I went to family doctor and he said it's nothing serious: (1) take it easy and rest your ankle; (2) try out full contact hockey for a change since badminton looks like a dangerous sport :rolleyes ; (3) just use an ankle brace. It's been 1.5 weeks since I went to the doctor and the tenderness has slowly elevated to slight soreness. And note I was naughty and didn't take the doc's advice of strapping on an ankle brace. To do big lunges and explosive moves are next to impossible right now as I can't apply force to the left foot. In retrospect, I think that the ankle was over pronated or supinated. Should I see a foot specialist?Any advice or opinion is highly appreciated.
Yes, you should. For that matter, so should I. I sprained my ankle (twice) over a year ago. The traumatic injury was a result of continuing to play after a fall on the ankle (which felt fine during play). I rested it and started playing **gently** as soon as possible, which I believe has helped recovery (if you rest too much, your ankle will develop a weakness). However, I still have pain in that ankle, together with increasing shin-splints and "sympathetic" pain in the other foot. I also have a tendency to fall on it occasionally when playing. After a year, I've finally had to concede that it's not going to recover fully on its own. I need professional advice. I recommend that, if this injury persists, you see a sports physiotherapist. It's what I'm going to do shortly. It's what I should have done a year ago. Your feet take a frightening amount of impact and stress during badminton - lunges, jumps, sudden changes of direction, twisting etc. You need to take care of them.
The ankle gets injured often in badminton. The best thing to do is to immediately do an 'ICE' on the injured part, after ensuring that it is not broken. 'ICE' stands for ice, compression, elevation. In place of ice you can apply it from a can that sprays a cold spray, the type you see medics use on injured players in professional soccer matches.
I have just seen another acronym - RECEIPT <quote> If tendinitis does occur, the most effective tendinitis treatment involves 'RECEIPT'' - Rest, Elevation, Compression, Easy Stretching of the Muscles in the injured area, Icing, and Possibly Taping to provide increased support. Very light activity is permitted during recovery, which usually takes from one to six weeks. 'Cross training' during recovery can take pressure off inflamed tendons while maintaining fitness. For example, injured cyclists could swim, damaged runners could cycle or swim, squash players could cycle, and . so on. </quote>
