Part of Ankle sprain
Can you walk on a sprained ankle? How soon, and how much weight
Warning signs, and when to get help
Does walking on it make the sprain worse?
This is the question behind the question, and it comes in several forms. Once a fracture has been ruled out, the answer is no: loading the ankle early is part of the treatment, not a risk to it.
The evidence for that is more concrete than most people expect. In a randomized trial of 101 people with a mild to moderate sprain, one group started exercise in the first week and the other followed standard protection advice. The exercise group had better ankle function at week 1 and week 2, and they did more with their day: 1.6 hours a day walking against 1.2, and 7,886 steps against 5,621 (Bleakley and colleagues, 2010). The trial reported no difference between the groups in pain at rest, pain on activity or swelling, and reinjury inside it was 4 percent, two people in each group.
The US physical therapy guideline turns the same idea into an instruction, on strong evidence. It recommends an external support, a brace or tape, with weight bearing built up progressively, choosing the support and any walking aid according to how severe the injury is, how far along the healing is, how much protection is needed, how much it hurts and what the patient prefers (Martin and colleagues, 2021).
The comparison with being put in a cast has been studied too, and the sourcing needs a note. The Cochrane review usually quoted for it now carries a withdrawal notice on its own record, so it is not used on this page. The guideline covers the same ground from other trials: functional treatment produced better results than immobilization on getting back to sport and to work, on how long each took, on swelling and on satisfaction, and 4 weeks in a lower leg cast lengthened the time to both (Martin and colleagues, 2021).
So the ligament is not waiting for you to keep still. What it does need is protection from the movement that injured it, which is why the support and the gradual build-up matter more than the number of steps.
How do you know it is not broken?
Before any of the loading advice, this. The honest message of this page is that getting about on a sprained ankle is usually fine, and the specific harm that message can do is to talk somebody out of getting a crack in a bone looked at. So the gate comes first and it is not optional.
Doctors and physios use the Ottawa ankle rules, a checklist developed and validated in emergency departments, and the weight bearing item in it is this very question: an X-ray is needed if the person could not take 4 steps right after the injury and still cannot when they are seen (Stiell and colleagues, 1993). Tenderness at specific bony points counts on its own, with no reference to how you are getting about. Those are the two trigger lines in the warning list at the foot of this page, and they are worth reading now, not later. The rules in full, including which bony points, are set out on the ankle sprain program.
Four things about the rules matter before you try to apply them to yourself.
They are good at ruling a fracture out, which is what they were built for. A systematic review pooling 27 studies and 15,581 patients concluded that the instrument has a sensitivity of almost 100 percent with modest specificity, and that using it should cut unnecessary X-rays by 30 to 40 percent (Bachmann and colleagues, 2003). The original validation estimated the probability of a fracture after a negative rule at 0 percent, with the confidence interval running up to 0.8 percent for the ankle region (Stiell and colleagues, 1993).
Almost 100 percent is not 100 percent. A negative result still leaves a small proportion of people with a break: pooled across those 27 studies, and set against a fracture rate of 15 percent in the people being assessed, the chance of a fracture after a negative rule came out under 1.4 percent (Bachmann and colleagues, 2003). Small is not none, which is why a worsening ankle gets re-checked rather than reasoned about.
They are rules a clinician uses, not a self-test. Pressing your own swollen ankle, from above, with no comparison and no training, is not the examination the studies measured.
And they are a reason to go, never a reason to stay home. If you are reading the list and finding yourself arguing with it, that is the moment to get it checked.
Two other injuries hide behind a rolled ankle and have their own lines in the warning list. A pop or snap at the back of the heel or lower calf can be a torn Achilles tendon even when you can still get about, and that page is Achilles tendon rupture. Pain above the joint rather than below the outer ankle bone can be a sprain of the ligament joining the two shin bones, which is covered on high ankle sprain. If a bone was broken, ankle fracture rehabilitation is the page, and your own team's protocol comes before it.
How soon can you put weight on it: the first week day by day
Almost everybody asking this wants a day: the next day, 2 days, 3 days, a week. The guidelines answer in rules rather than dates, so here is the day by day version, with the caveat that the days are a common pattern and not a published schedule.
Days 1 to 3. The NHS advises trying not to put weight on it, along with protection, rest, ice, compression and elevation. Crutches are useful here if a step is too painful to take evenly. The detail of those first days, including the ice and the things to avoid, is on the ankle sprain program.
Days 3 to 7, roughly. More weight each day, in small steps, with the support or tape you were given, and with the aim of a normal looking step, not the greatest possible distance. Short trips, more often, beat one long outing.
From the end of the first week. Most people are getting about the house without a crutch, and the job changes from how much weight to how well: full step length, heel to toe, no sideways roll off the outside of the foot.
The rule that replaces the date is the next morning. Aching during and shortly after is ordinary. An ankle that is more swollen or stiffer the next morning was asked for too much, so the next day is a step back rather than a step up. That is the same rule the staged program runs on, and it is a better guide than any calendar because it is about your ankle.
What the timeline looks like across weeks rather than days, including the work and sport figures from the guideline, is on sprained ankle recovery time.
Do you need crutches or a boot?
These are two different questions and they get merged.
Crutches reduce how much load goes through the foot while still letting you move, and the guideline folds them into one judgement with the brace or the tape: the support and any walking aid are chosen for the severity, the healing phase, the protection needed, the pain and your preference (Martin and colleagues, 2021). There is no published number of days. The practical test is whether you can take a step through that foot without lurching; while you cannot, a crutch makes your gait better, not worse.
A boot or a stiff brace is a bigger decision and is not the default. The guideline allows immobilization, anywhere from a semi-rigid brace to a below-knee cast, for up to 10 days in the more severe injuries, and then functional treatment starts (Martin and colleagues, 2021). It also reports that 4 weeks in a lower leg cast lengthens the time to get back to work and to sport. If somebody has put you in a boot, that is their clinical decision and worth following, including asking them when it comes off and what you should be doing while it is on.
One thing that often gets lost: the warning list on this page carries a blood clot line, and it names time in a cast or a boot among the situations that raise the risk. Read it, because the early signs are easy to put down to the injury.
What about the limp?
Chase this in the second and third week. It is usually fixable in minutes, not weeks.
The pattern is a short step on the sore side and a quick roll off the outer edge of the foot. It protects the ankle for a few days and then becomes a habit that hides how little the ankle is bending upward, which is the thing stairs and squatting need. Slowing down and taking an even, full step usually sorts it, at the cost of shorter trips for a while.
If the limp is still there once the soreness has gone, get the upward bend and the calf checked instead of waiting it out. That is a physio appointment, not an emergency, and it is the same stall described on the ankle sprain program.
Can you walk on it if it does not hurt?
Yes, with a caveat attached, because this is the question people use to skip the fracture check.
The weight bearing item in the Ottawa rules is one trigger among several. Tenderness at the tip or the back edge of either ankle bone, or at either of the two named spots in the middle of the foot, counts on its own even if you are getting about comfortably (Stiell and colleagues, 1993). The midfoot line in the warning list says so in as many words: get it checked the same day, even if you can still walk on it. People do get about on undisplaced fractures.
The second caveat is about sport rather than safety. An ankle that feels fine on a flat floor has usually not yet got back the position sense and the quick muscle reactions that protect it on grass, gravel or a dark pavement, and that gap is what the balance work exists to close. It is on ankle proprioception exercises. Deciding you are ready for sport is a separate judgement with its own page, ankle sprain return to sport, and swelling going down is not the test.
Finally, if the ache you are asking about arrived without an injury at all and shows up after being on your feet, this may not be a sprain. That belongs on ankle pain after walking instead.
Related exercise programs
Warning signs
Get emergency help now
- Emergency: the ankle or foot looks deformed or out of place, you heard a crack when you were injured, or the foot is numb, tingling, cold, pale or blue. Go to an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself.
Get help today
- Same day: you could not take 4 steps right after the injury and still cannot, or the back edge or tip of either ankle bone is tender to press. Keep your weight off that foot as much as you can, leave the exercises out, and get it checked for a fracture the same day. These are part of the Ottawa ankle rules, explained on this page.
- Same day: the pain is in the middle of your foot, and the bony bump halfway along the outer edge of the foot or the bony bump on the inner side of the midfoot is tender to press. Keep your weight off that foot as much as you can, leave the exercises out, and get it checked for a fracture the same day, even if you can still walk on it.
- Same day: you felt a pop or snap at the back of your heel or lower calf, or it felt as if someone kicked you there, even if you can still walk and push off. Stop, take the weight off that leg carefully, and go to an urgent care center or emergency department the same day, as this can be a torn Achilles tendon rather than a sprain.
- Same day: the pain is severe and getting worse, or the swelling or bruising is very large. Get medical advice the same day.
- Same day: the ankle or foot is hot, red and swollen, or you have a fever or feel unwell. Get medical help the same day, and go to an emergency department if you feel very unwell. If you have a very high or very low temperature, shivering you cannot control, you are breathing very fast or finding it hard to breathe, you are confused or your speech is slurred, your skin, lips or tongue look blue, gray, pale or blotchy (on brown or black skin this can be easier to see on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet), or you have a rash that does not fade when you press it, call emergency services, as this can be sepsis.
- Same day: a calf or thigh that is newly swollen or getting more swollen, warm, tender, red or darker than usual, has swollen veins that are sore to touch, or has a throbbing or cramping pain that does not fit your injury or condition, or that feels different from normal muscle soreness after exercise. This can be a sign of a blood clot (deep vein thrombosis), especially after surgery, an injury, time in a cast or boot, a long trip or a spell of being much less mobile than usual. Get medical advice the same day. If you are also short of breath or have chest pain, call emergency services.
Book an appointment
- Within a week or two: the ankle keeps giving way or rolling over, even on flat ground, weeks or months after the sprain. This is not an emergency, but book an assessment with a physio or doctor in the next week or two.
Common questions
Can I walk on a sprained ankle the next day?
Most people can take some weight through it by then, with less weight than usual and often with a support or a crutch, and that is a reasonable thing to be doing. Two conditions apply. First, the fracture signs have to be absent: you could not take 4 steps right after the injury and still cannot, or the back edge or tip of either ankle bone is tender to press. Keep your weight off that foot as much as you can, leave the exercises out, and get it checked for a fracture the same day. These are part of the Ottawa ankle rules, explained on this page. The midfoot signs count too: the pain is in the middle of your foot, and the bony bump halfway along the outer edge of the foot or the bony bump on the inner side of the midfoot is tender to press. Keep your weight off that foot as much as you can, leave the exercises out, and get it checked for a fracture the same day, even if you can still walk on it. Second, judge it by the next morning rather than by how it feels at the time, because a swollen, stiffer ankle the following day means yesterday was too much.
How long will I need crutches?
There is no published number, and anyone who gives you one is guessing. The US physical therapy guideline treats the choice of support and of any walking aid as a judgement about your ankle: how severe the injury is, how far along the healing is, how much protection it needs, how much it hurts and what you prefer (Martin and colleagues, 2021). In practice crutches earn their place while a single step through that foot is still too painful to do evenly, and they come off in stages, often one crutch before none. Your physio or doctor decides that with you, and holding onto them long after you need them has its own cost in stiffness and calf strength.
Should I be wearing a boot?
Not routinely, and not for long if you are. The US physical therapy guideline allows immobilization ranging from a semi-rigid brace to a below-knee cast for up to 10 days in more severe injuries, after which functional treatment starts, and it reports that 4 weeks in a lower leg cast lengthens the time it takes to get back to work and sport (Martin and colleagues, 2021). If a doctor has put you in a boot, follow their instructions and ask at the time how long it is meant to be on and what you should be doing in it, because that is their decision rather than something to adjust from a web page.
Does walking on it help it heal faster?
It helps function sooner, which is not quite the same claim. In a randomized trial of 101 people with a mild to moderate sprain, the group given exercise in the first week had better ankle function at weeks 1 and 2 than the group given standard protection advice, and they were measurably more active with it, spending 1.6 hours a day walking against 1.2 hours and taking 7,886 steps against 5,621 (Bleakley and colleagues, 2010). Pain at rest, pain on activity and swelling did not separate the two groups, and reinjury was 4 percent, two people in each group. So early loading does not appear to cost you anything and gets you moving sooner. No trial read for this page shows the ligament itself knitting faster.
References
- Martin RL, Davenport TE, Fraser JJ, et al. Ankle Stability and Movement Coordination Impairments: Lateral Ankle Ligament Sprains Revision 2021. Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy. 2021;51(4):CPG1-CPG80. https://doi.org/10.2519/jospt.2021.0302
- Stiell IG, Greenberg GH, McKnight RD, et al. Decision rules for the use of radiography in acute ankle injuries. Refinement and prospective validation. JAMA. 1993;269(9):1127-1132. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.269.9.1127
- Bachmann LM, Kolb E, Koller MT, Steurer J, ter Riet G. Accuracy of Ottawa ankle rules to exclude fractures of the ankle and mid-foot: systematic review. BMJ. 2003;326(7386):417. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7386.417
- Bleakley CM, O'Connor SR, Tully MA, et al. Effect of accelerated rehabilitation on function after ankle sprain: randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 2010;340:c1964. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.c1964
- NHS. Sprains and strains. Page last reviewed 23 April 2024. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/sprains-and-strains/
Written and checked by the PocketPhysio editorial team. Last updated 2026-11-06.
This page is general education, not a diagnosis or a personal treatment plan. See a physiotherapist or doctor for advice about your own situation.