Patrick Mahomes’ high ankle sprain could be scary, explained by a physical therapist

There’s bated breath in Kansas City as Chiefs fans wait to see how Patrick Mahomes will be able to perform down the stretch after an injury against the Browns on Sunday. Post-game the organization said that Mahomes has a “high ankle sprain,” and will be a “week-to-week” decision moving forward.

The injury happened on this play, when the quarterback was folded over when two defenders brought him down.

The term “high ankle sprain” is often mentioned in football, and it’s a fairly common injury. However, for all the talk about the injury it’s not often explained how a high ankle sprain is functionally different from a regular sprained ankle, why it’s more severe, and in Mahomes’ case, how it will limit his movement and ability to play as we approach the playoffs.

I spoke to Easton Osborn PT, DPT, CLT, CES — a physical therapist with years of experience diagnosing and treating a variety of injuries in athletes, as well as the general public. He explained why the high ankle sprain can be so problematic for an athlete like Patrick Mahomes, and what we can expect down the stretch.

“When someone references rolling an ankle it typically refers to ligaments between the foot and lower leg, but a high ankle sprain involves the ligaments connecting your tibia and fibula bones.

Ligaments are meant to provide stability at the extremes of motion, but they don’t have the ability to contract like muscles do. That means less blood flow, and less ability to remodel the tissue when they become stretched too much.

What makes a high ankle injury worse often times is how we rely on those structures to provide support and stability with normal walking and weight bearing, let alone scrambling as a quarterback. Depending on the degree of stretch and insult that took place to the ankle, it could be week to week or it could take months.

Regardless, his medical team is going to need to provide extra support to the ankle because the connective tissue can’t do its job optimally anymore and his risk for another injury in the future goes up.”

So essentially there are two major issues at play:

1. The high ankle sprain Mahomes sustained on his plant leg will fundamentally make throwing the ball and avoiding pressure in the pocket more difficult.
2. This is of extra worry because this is now the third injury of this type Mahomes has sustained to the same leg.

There’s little doubt the Chiefs have an incredible team around Mahomes and getting him healthy is the utmost concern, but there’s still a lot of worry surrounding the Chiefs’ QB and this specific injury. Not just now, but in the future.