In October 2010, during a game against the Green Bay Packers, Brett Favre sustained two ankle injuries.
During the game, Favre aggravated a pre-existing stress fracture in his ankle, and also sustained an avulsion fracture in his left heel, where a small bit of bone was chipped away. His injuries didn’t require surgical treatment.
Many thought these injuries would endanger Favre’s then 296-game consecutive starts streak, but despite his ailments, Favre started the following game against the Patriots.
Dr. Silverman Comments:
If you watch Favre’s injuries throughout his career, he has been plagued by problems with his left ankle. He has injured that ankle multiple times, most often when being sacked.
Here are the basics:
- An ankle sprain involves injury to the ligaments that support the stability of the ankle
- Ankle sprains are graded I-III based on the severity of damage to the ligaments.
Favre’s recurrent ankle injuries were not just sprains. His ligaments were already stretched out and never repaired. To treat this ankle pain he kept having ankle spurs removed and scar tissue removed but the true cause of his recurrent ankle troubles, the stretched out ligaments, were never addressed. Spurs always form when ligaments are unstable. They are the body’s way of trying to stabilize the ankle. Removing them never works in the long run but, can give some relief in the short run.
During the October 2010 game against the Packers, his ankle injury involved a rolling ankle as he was being tackled. The stress fracture is better known among orthopedic surgeons as a bone bruise or microtrabecular fracture (an injury to the spongy bone in the center of the ankle and not to the hard cortical bone) and an avulsion injury at the insertion site of one of the ligaments.
Basically, his ankle rolled because the ligaments are stretched out. This put pressure abnormally inside the ankle joint, caused the bone bruise (stress fracture), and then as these stretched out ligaments eventually tensioned in this rolled position as he was being tackled, the ligaments pulled a piece of bone off his heel.
It’s an unfortunate mess, but all is not lost.
In my practice, I have always felt that ankle stabilization, even in the presence of arthritis (a consequence of repeat ankle giveways) is worthwhile. Brett Favre could get more years out of that ankle if he would just get the ligaments fixed.
Related Sources:
SportsIllustrated.com