Does this need an X-ray or fine to just ice and strap it up?

[RandomUserName11]

16 year old fell when playing football in the garage - we have vinyl tiled floors and he was just in his socks 😒🤷‍♀️

He says he felt possibly a crunch but isn't actually sure . It's painful but he's got it elevated with ice and is playing Xbox just fine now

Thoughts? It's the left ankle btw

I would say x-ray- but have no medical qualifications- hopefully someone who has will be along soon

It’s the shape that made me say that the

Can you RICE it overnight (Rest Ice Compress Elevate) and take him to minor injuries in the morning if it's still sore and swollen? It does look swollen but I left my x-ray vision in work sadly. It's very hard to tell via the internet.

X-ray

Best to get that checked out with an x Ray.

Always get it x-rayed. Go to minor injuries tomorrow.

I'd say x-ray

Can he weight bare at all, is there any bruising, when he fell how did his ankle bend/move?

Yes. I'd go now. I heard a crunch when I fractured my ankle. Nothing to be gained hobbling around on it overnight. He might need a boot for a few weeks, the sooner the better.

I'm not one for panicking, so would say keep it elevated and rested as much as possible tonight and if in doubt get it checked out tomorrow.

Thanks all

It's not bruised or anything yet - just pale and a big lump on it. He's not tried walking on it yet after hopping his way upstairs

He doesn't seem in any pain as I can hear him laughing upstairs so on balance, I think will see how he is over the next few hours

We do have minor injuries in the next town which is open until 10pm so all I'd do is sit in traffic if we go now so I'll make a call on it at about 8pm

Any visible bruising? A crunch isn't good. Can he weight bear normally on it?

Even if it's "just a bad sprain" I'd get it looked at.

I ignored what I was sure was a bad sprain and here we are ten years on with evidence of multiple historical fractures to the foot and a deeply unstable ankle because I didn't do physiotherapy or anything in the immediate aftermath. I go over on it at least every 8 months even in properly laced up high leg / flat soled boots, and it was only the last really nasty episode that led me to A&E and the xray with the results above (and a blue bruised and swollen foot for a few weeks with shredded ligaments).

A bad sprain can take months and months to heal, and tbh a clean fracture is easier to recover from! Get a medical opinion.

If he is laughing and playing, he's fine.

If there was a break, fracture or dislocation in that area, even the jiggle of laughter would be fucking agony.

RICE, and sympathy! Poor kid.

Two things

• look up the ottowa ankle rules and check him out using that - even if he can weightbear it might still warrant an X-ray, and if he can't weightbear then it definitely will
• even if you don't think it's fractured there is soft tissue damage and as an active 16yo he might not give it the time to heal properly. Give it a few days then think about GP for a physio referral

I'd avoid ice - it's no longer considered helpful:

Ice was finally revoked in 2019 from the injury management process with the latest and most comprehensive acronym: PEACE & LOVE (Protection, Elevation, Avoid Anti-Inflammatory Drugs, Compression, Education & Load, Optimism, Vascularisation and Exercise) .

Sorry, meant to post a link:

I manage to walking around and work on a broken ankle for weeks because I "thought" it couldn't be broken. At least I had the excuse that I hadn't done anything to break it, didn't hear a crunch, and wasn't foolish enough to run a poll on MN with a bunch of experts with neither medical knowledge nor diagnostic equipment to hand.

Not true 🙄.
It needs an X-ray.

My broken ankle looked just like this.

Get him to walk on it. That’ll give you a better indication.

I’d get that looked at .

Agree this likely needs looking at. If it is painful on weight bearing/there's tenderness when you touch the bony part it may be a fracture.

That needs medical attention. I had a similar injury when I was a teenager and had to have surgery 10 years later because it was so damaged. A sprain can be worse than a fracture.

When you say pale- is it paler then the other door and is it cold?

Blimey that looks huge!

Foot not door