How long does it take to heal?

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Now, with this question, it is impossible to give a straight answer! Sorry!!


The reasons are many!

For example there is no such thing as an average injury, in an average person, with average environmental conditions etc. Even within the same tissue types in the same person the tissues can heal very differently.

So I would advise caution reading too much into the following article, but people ask “how long” all the time so I have done this as a little evidence based guide but don’t worry if you aren’t matching up to what times are suggested below!

Muscle Healing:

The common feeling is muscle takes between 3-6 weeks but what does the research say?
Hamstring injuries: If you can walk painlessly within 1 day then you are likely to get better within 3 weeks but if it takes longer than 1 day to walk painlessly then it will take longer than 3 weeks to recover back to sport (Guillodo et al 2011).

Bone Healing:

Most people say that bone heals in around 6 weeks but does the evidence support this view?
Normal healing occurred in 61 fractures with a mean healing time of 17 weeks (Karladani et al 2001).

Ligament Healing:

Most soft tissues are normally considered to take 6-8 weeks to heal but ligament may be 12 weeks but what does the literature find?
6 weeks to 3 months before ligament healing occurred in the ankle. This being said this study found that at 6 weeks to 1 year after injury, a large percentage of participants still had objective mechanical laxity and subjective ankle instability (Hubbard & Hicks-Little 2008).


Tendon Healing:

Tendons are slower to heal and some people believe that it takes 16 weeks to heal tendon but let’s see what the research findings say:
Acute tendon injury can take up to 6 weeks and chronic tendon injury can take 3 to 6 months. It was found that it takes the body 100 days to make new collagen hence the slower recovery time of chronic tendon injury (Khan et al 2000).


So, like I said earlier take this information with a pinch of salt but this is what the research says and that is that.


So if you would like to book in for an assessment then contact me via any of the below methods:


Telephone: 01782 771861
Mobile: 07866195914


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