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Ligament tear

Ligaments attach bones to other bones. They generally have a more limited blood supply than either muscle or tendon – lengthening their healing time.
Ankle sprains and ligamentous tears in the knee (such as an Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury) are two common ligament injuries.

Severity and prognosis

Grade 1 - Small micro holes. No swelling, and small hemorrhage (bruising). Mild sprain.
- Should recover 4–6 weeks later. It will be less painful after a week or two and walking should be fine.
- Work back into high level exercises after 2/3 weeks and return to sport may take about 6–8 weeks.
Grade 2 - partial tear of ligament. The ligament recovers in 8–12 weeks. The ligament will have “healed” during this time.
- But if you wanna get back into running/football etc. then you’ll need to start higher level rehab at the 6–8 week mark to build up strength and confidence.
- Full recovery back into your impact sport might take up to 4–5 months if you do the right rehab to stop it happening again.
Grade 3 - full tear of ligament. This can sometimes recover by itself but it does vary by location, nature of injury and the individual. There will normally be loads of swelling so will be important to assess function once inflammation has settled.
- “I’ve known of people to live comfortably without a particular ligament, they don’t always warrant surgery. I myself have completely torn one of my ankle ligaments 4 years ago and I can run and play football without an issue.”
- However, if the ligament (eg. ACL, MCL, ATFL) doesn’t recover and it causing instability, and you want to get back into your sport/hobby then surgery might be needed to repair the ligament.