The Old Rolled Ankle That Almost Ended My Soccer Season

The first time I rolled my right ankle I heard it before I felt it. Sunday morning, city park, grass still wet from the sprinklers, and I stepped into a rut that had no business being there. I went down, and I told every guy standing over me that I was fine. I was not fine. That ankle cost me the rest of the season and most of the fall.

That was about six years ago. I am 48 now, I work as an HVAC service technician in San Antonio, and I play center midfield in an over-40 Sunday league plus a Wednesday night seven-a-side pickup game on artificial turf. After the sprain, the physical therapist who rehabbed me suggested a lace-up brace when I got back to playing. I have worn a Med Spec ASO on that right ankle for every game since, and I am on my second one.

Let me be clear about what that brace is, because people get strange about this stuff. The ASO is a nylon lace-up brace with figure-8 straps that wrap around the ankle. It is lightweight and it fits inside my cleat. It does not heal anything and it does not prevent anything. What it does, for me, is make the ankle feel held when I plant and turn. The listing says athletic trainers and doctors recommend it a lot, and that matches what my PT told me six years ago.

Last spring I stepped on a sprinkler head at the edge of the pitch and went over on that same ankle. Same foot, same motion, same small voice in my head saying here we go. I got up, jogged it off and finished the half. I want to be careful here, because I am not going to tell you a brace saved my season. I do not know what would have happened if I had been wearing nothing. What I know is that I felt held, and I finished the game, and I drove home and iced it like I always do.

I think about that ankle more than a grown man should. I think about it in the truck on the way to the park, and I think about it when the grass is wet, and I think about it when guys half my age cut past me. Then the whistle goes and I stop thinking about it, which is the entire point.

Six years, two braces, one bad step on a sprinkler head, and the ASO is the only piece of gear I have never once left in the truck.

Here is my routine, in case it is useful. Thin sock, brace on, lace it, pull the figure-8 straps across the front, fasten them, then the team sock over the top. It takes about a minute. I do it before I get out of the truck, because if I sit down in the parking lot and start messing with laces I will forget something and end up playing without it. My bag lives in the back of my work truck all week, and the brace is always in the same pocket.

A few years back I spent about a month in a pull-on sleeve style support for the Wednesday turf game. It felt fine standing in line and useless the first time I had to change direction at speed. The lace-up is more work to get on and I do not care. I want the ankle to feel like there is a wall on both sides of it, and the straps are what gives me that. That is a preference, not a rule.

I am not a doctor and I am not going to write like one. If your ankle hurts in a way that wakes you up at night, or it is swollen and you cannot put weight on it, go see somebody. The exercises my physical therapist gave me are what actually got me back on the field. No piece of equipment replaced those. Gear just lets you keep doing the boring part, which is showing up twice a week for twenty years.

There is other stuff in my bag for the same reason. Compression sleeves for tight calves on the turf, grip socks so my foot stops sliding around inside the cleat, shin guards, and a foam roller in the garage that I use on Monday mornings when everything is stiff. None of it is exciting. All of it is the difference between playing Sunday and watching Sunday.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If we were sitting at my kitchen table and you asked me about an ankle brace, here is what I would say. If something hurts and you cannot explain it, get it looked at before you buy anything. Do the exercises, all of them, including the boring ones on the sheet.

If you are like me though, six years past a bad roll, cleared to play, and you want the ankle to feel supported when you cut, then a lace-up brace is worth the minute it takes to put on. The ASO is the one I use. Nylon, laces, figure-8 straps, fits in a cleat, and it comes in a large that fits my foot. I am on my second one in six years, which tells you it wears about like a good pair of cleats does. Wear the thing every game, not just the ones that feel risky, and then stop thinking about your ankle and go think about the game.