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The literature recommends different best practices. Some may say the best injury prevention methods are wearing tapes or braces. Other professionals are keep saying that the best way to prevent injuries is rehab.
What is the scientific consensus? Do professional players wear ankle braces anyway?
From the article Understanding acute ankle ligamentous sprain injury in sports the main citation were:
Garrick JG, Requa RK: (Role of external support in the prevention of ankle sprains) were the first research group to attempt to prevent ankle sprain injury. They reported that high-top shoe and prophylactic ankle taping were effective in reducing the ankle sprain injury rate among a group of 2,562 basketball players during a one year study period.
Rovere GD, Clarke TJ, Yates CS, Burley K: (Retrospective comparison of taping and ankle stabilizers in preventing ankle injuries) suggested a low-top shoe with a laced ankle stabilizer was effective in reducing ankle sprain injury.
Boyce SH, Quigley MA, Campbell S: (Management of ankle sprains: a randomised controlled trial of the treatment of inversion injuries using an elastic support bandage or an Aircast ankle brace) suggested effect for wearing Aircast ankle brace is Significant improvement in ankle joint function at both 10 days and one month compared with standard management with an elastic support bandage.
And from article The Effect of Lace-up Ankle Braces on Injury Rates in High School Basketball Players conclusion:
Use of lace-up ankle braces reduced the incidence but not the severity of acute ankle injuries in male and female high school basketball athletes both with and without a previous history of an ankle injury.
From the article Ankle Taping and Bracing:
Ankle bracing and taping are used for the prevention of ankle injuries, especially in athletes with a past history of ankle sprains.
and it's outcome were:
In a study by Robbins and Waked, which found that taped participants had improved proprioception both before and after exercise compared with untaped control subjects. The authors theorized that the traction or pressure imparted to the skin of the foot and ankle via taping or bracing provided improved sensory input and thus improved proprioception, resulting in fewer ankle sprains.
Systematic review and meta-analysis of eight studies by Raymond et al found that the evidence suggested that using an ankle brace or ankle tape had no effect on proprioceptive acuity in participants who had recurrent ankle sprain or functional ankle instability.
However I am not sure about: Other professionals are keep saying that the best way to prevent injuries is rehab.
Because from this article Sports Injury Rehabilitation
Sports Injury Rehabilitation is a multi-disciplinary approach to the prevention, evaluation, and treatment of injuries. The first step towards recovery is getting an accurate diagnosis from a certified sports-injury specialist. Typically, the initial stage of treatment involves reducing pain and promoting healing. Once pain and swelling are reduced, progressive reconditioning treatment will begin.
Note: All these blockquote are copied from respected article and I am not a owner for those content. I have tried to add name of respective owner of content if I missed any that is clearly my fault.
Summarizing from all these articles with many researches in sports and medicine, we can conclude wearing ankle tapes and braces helps in preventing injuries in team sports to some extent.
