Late last week, Los Angeles Lakers star Lebron James returned to the court after missing more than a month while recovering from a high ankle sprain. James acknowledged that his ankle still bothered him on the court, and yesterday he sat out of the second-leg of two games in two days to give his ankle some additional rest. His ankle is certainly strong enough to play, but at the same time, James says it’s still bothering him, which will be a storyline to watch as the regular season winds down.
However, James made headlines when talking about his ankle, as he seemed to suggest he’ll never fully be able to put the injury behind him. When talking to reporters, James said “I know getting back to 100% is impossible. I’ll never get back to 100% in my career.”
Was his high ankle sprain really something he’ll never be able to shake? Dr. Silverman takes a closer look at James’ words and how a high ankle sprain could affect one of the best basketball players in the world.
“Never Get Back To 100%”
James said that he’ll never get back to 100 percent, but to us, it seems like he’s moreso referring to how he’ll never be as healthy as he was when he was much younger. Heck, I’d bet 99 percent of people would say that their body was in better shape at 22 years of age compared to when they were 36 years old. Our bodies take regular wear and tear every single day, and while we oftentimes exercise and do what we can to keep it healthy, father time comes for us all. We think when he says he’ll never get back to 100 percent, we think he means he’ll never have the unmatched strength, quickness and mobility that he had more than a decade ago.
The main reason why we think this is what James means is because a high ankle sprain isn’t exactly an injury that will stick with your for the rest of your life. Now, if you ignored the injury, continued to regular put pressure on it and ended up doing even more damage to your ankle ligaments, then yes, that ankle may end up feeling a little uncomfortable or weaker than your other ankle. But if you did what James did and you rested it and had some of the best doctors and athletic trainers working to help you fully heal, we see no reason why you wouldn’t be able to strengthen those injured ligaments and get back to full health.
It’s not as if he suffered a more serious injury to a specific ligament or tendon. An ACL or Achilles tear at his age could absolutely affect him for the rest of his career. Those soft tissue tears take many months or more to recover from. With a high ankle sprain, your supportive ankle ligaments are stretched and injured, but they can actually come back stronger if you give it enough time and you work through your standard physical therapy routine. I have no doubt that Lebron can fully recover from his high ankle sprain, but he, like the rest of us, all yearn for a younger and more agile version of ourselves. We’ll keep an eye on his ankle throughout the rest of the season and into the playoffs.