So I’m walking through Regent’s Park today and I was just thinking about a story that a patient told me today that I hear quite a lot. Patient had hurt their ankle and went to A&E because it was painful to walk on, and A&E did an X-ray and the X-ray was fine. Now they said there was no breaks. So because there were no breaks, it was probably just a sprain. That’s one thing. And because it’s probably just a sprain, just take it easy for a couple of weeks and then everything will be fine.

Everything will not be fine for the sprain after just two weeks of taking it easy, particularly not for dancers or for any athletes for that matter. 

And I think there’s lots of things to dissect here. In A&E, they want to make sure you stay alive and that there’s nothing life-threatening. And whilst the sprain isn’t life-threatening, there’s more to getting back to full function, particularly as a dancer or in a top-level athlete, than just taking it easy for a couple of weeks and then getting straight back to what you were doing before. 

Please don’t fall for that trap. There’s more to it than that.