Soccer ankle injuries

Soccer Ankle Injuries: Causes, Prevention, and Recovery Tips

Written ByDaniel Pena
Reading Time: 5 minutes

Soccer ankle injuries are some of the most common injuries in the world of football, affecting players of all levels, from youth soccer players to professional soccer players. These types of injuries can occur in two different ways: contact and non-contact.

Contact injuries usually result from direct collisions, tackles, or awkward landings after physical challenges, while non-contact injuries are often caused by a poor fascial system, repetitive stress, or by landing wrong. Whether it’s a lateral ankle sprain, high ankle sprain, or Achilles tendon strain, these injuries can lead to chronic ankle instability, long-term ankle pain, and constant risk of re-injury.

If left untreated, they can also contribute to scar tissue buildup, soft tissue damage, and even bone-related issues like bone spurs or stress fractures. That is why in this blog post I want to go over the best soccer ankle injury prevention and recovery tips.

Types of Foot and Ankle Injuries and Their Main Causes

When it comes to foot and ankle injuries there are a lot of different types and causes for each one. These are the main ankle injuries in soccer that players need to be aware of and what typically causes them:

  • Lateral Ankle Sprain (Inversion Sprain)
    • Cause: Rolling the foot inward during certain movements, tackles, or landing awkwardly.
  • Medial Ankle Sprain (Eversion Sprain)
    • Cause: Rolling the foot outward due to forceful contact, collision, or landing on an uneven surface.
  • High Ankle Sprain (Syndesmotic Sprain)
    • Cause: Occurs when the foot is forcefully twisted outward while the leg remains planted, overstretching the ligaments that connect the tibia and fibula above the ankle,
  • Achilles Tendonitis
    • Cause: Overuse injury from a tight fascia system that puts too much stress on the Achilles tendon.
  • Achilles Tendon Rupture
    • Cause: Sudden explosive movements, sprinting, or jumping that overstress a weakened or tight Achilles tendon.
  • Stress Fractures (Ankle & Foot Bones)
    • Cause: Repetitive stress, high-impact trauma, overtraining, and insufficient rest, often in the ankle bone, heel bone, or shin bone.
  • Posterior Ankle Impingement (Footballer’s Ankle)
    • Cause: Repetitive forceful plantarflexion (pointing toes down), common in kicking and sprinting movements.
  • Peroneal Tendon Injuries
    • Cause: Overuse, repetitive ankle rolling, and poor ankle joint stability, leading to tendon strain or subluxation.
  • Sever’s Disease (Youth Players)
    • Cause: Overuse injury affecting the heel bone’s growth plate in adolescent soccer players during growth spurts.
  • Scar Tissue and Bone Spurs
    • Cause: Poorly healed ankle injuries, chronic inflammation, and repetitive stress leading to tissue buildup and bone overgrowth.

Injury Prevention Tips to Avoid Future Ankle Sprains

Preventing any type of soccer injury involves a combination of proper preparation, making healthy lifestyle choices, and following a proper injury prevention program. Here are some of the best tips for soccer players to help reduce the risk of injury.

A lot of these tips will cost little to no money, and you can start using them today. The way to get the most out of these tips is to use them consistently and for a long period of time, doing them once, or once in a while is not going to give you the best results.

  • Train your fascia system
    • Optimize the quality of your connective tissue and improve the reflexive stability, elasticity, and coordination of your movements.
  • Regain full foot and toe function
    • Learn how to consciously engage your feet and toes, by learning how to properly apply fascial tension
  • Spend Time Barefoot
    • Spending time barefoot allows you to perform grounding therapy and it also helps improve foot and toe function. Since you will not always have the opportunity to be barefoot it is also important to stop wearing modern cushioned shoes and opt for some natural barefoot shoes
  • Sleep
    • Get 7-8 hours of high quality deep sleep daily
  • Nutrition
    • Focus on eating healthy and nutritious foods and snacks and avoid all processed junk food
  • Hydration
    • Even mild dehydration can increase your risk of injury
  • Supplementation
    • Take the right supplements, but only after you have fixed your lifestyle choices, nutrition, and hydration.
  • Recovery Techniques
    • Use natural recovery techniques to boost and speed recovery time
  • Improve Mitochondrial Function
    • Your mitochondrial function and redox potential are two of the most important things for your overall health and longevity
  • Working with Nature
    • We are part of nature and reconnecting with nature has many benefits that go beyond injury prevention
  • Maintain fitness levels
    • Stay in shape, don’t get lazy, and don’t get out of shape because losing your fitness increases your risk of injury, slows down your recovery, and makes it harder to perform at your best when it matters most.
  • Proper warmup and cool down
    • Make sure you warm up properly before going all out during a soccer game or training.
    • This can be as simple as running a few laps followed by dynamic stretches
  • Play a lot of soccer and variations of the sport to build soccer-specific fitness
  • Cross Training with Other Sports

Step-by-Step Guide for how to Recover from Sprained Ankles Fast

Now with all of the above information in mind: Here’s a step-by-step plan to help you heal faster and get back on the field stronger:

  • Immediate Rest and Protection
    • Stop playing immediately to prevent further damage
  • Support the natural healing process of the body with Smart Lifestyle Choices
    • Remember: inflammation is part of the healing process — don’t rush to stop it completely with ice or medication, instead help it with heat.
    • .Take a hot foot bath with epsom salts for 10-15 minutes, to increase blood flow, promote nutrient delivery, and help the tissues relax once the initial swelling phase has passed.
    • Prioritize 7-9 hours of high quality sleep for cellular repair.
    • Maintain proper hydration levels throughout the day
    • Consume nutrient-dense foods to fuel tissue healing.
    • Protect yourself from NNEMF and surround yourself with NEMF.
    • Spend 15-30 minutes per day grounding
  • Roll out fascia adhesions and perform fascia training exercises
    • Focus on slow, controlled rolling to target areas of tightness and restriction around the foot, ankle, and lower leg.
    • Follow up with fascial tension exercises that train elasticity, recoil, and reflexive stability—helping your body move as one integrated system.
  • Rebuild Foot / Ankle Function and Strength
    • Focus on simple exercises like toe retractions, single leg balance, and walks to restore strength
    • Gradually progress to more dynamic movements to rebuild coordination and prevent future sprains (longer walks, light jogs, barefoot hops, etc.)

Summary

Soccer ankle injuries are among the most common issues faced by players, often caused by poor movement patterns, fascial imbalances, or physical contact. This blog breaks down the most frequent injury types, their causes, and offers a holistic prevention and recovery plan focused on fascia training, lifestyle habits, and natural healing strategies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is physical therapy useful for football players?

Physical Therapy can be useful for footballers, but it is important to find the right practitioner who knows what they are talking about and has experience working with people in-person. I’ve seen a lot of athletes and non-athletes go to physical therapy for 5-10 years or more and their problems still don’t go away, which suggests that either the root cause is not being addressed, or the treatment approach is ineffective and too surface-level.

With that being said, I am sure there are a lot of high quality physical therapists out there, but you want to do your own research to make sure you are working with the right person that is more concerned about actually healing you rather than turning you into a life-long customer.

How can I begin improving my soccer skills right now?

To begin improving your soccer skills right now, check out our post on the best soccer training drills. If you are looking to accelerate your progress, contact us or sign an interest form for our private training program.

How can I learn more about the game?

To learn more about soccer the most important thing is to join a team and play the game as much as possible. If possible, analyze high level games as much as you can and your own games as well by recording them with a soccer camera. Also read soccer books, listen to podcasts, watch soccer documentaries, as well as some movies, tv shows, and anime.

Soccer Coach/ CPT/Blogger/Sports Coordinator

Daniel Pena is an amateur footballer, a private coach, blogger, and league manager who is passionate about the beautiful game and looking to give back to the game. Daniel has a combined 10+ years of experience playing in club soccer, high school, college, and top amateur adult leagues in the United States, a Bachelor’s Degree in Kinesiology Rehab:Science, and is a Certified Personal Trainer and Nutritionist.
Daniel has a training program called The Art of Football and works with various athletes in all age-ranges with athletic training, recovery from injuries, and football training. The Art of Football believes that one of the best ways to get better at the game is to play the game and surround yourself with it as much as possible.
That is why Daniel also created Bay Area Champions. A competitive but friendly small-sided soccer league in the United States. Through the Art of Football and Bay Area Champions Daniel also gives back to the community of San Jose by hosting free pickup games for players in our leagues, training program, for the public!

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