Sorry to hear about your unlucky situation with the army.
Anterior ankle impingement is due to inflammation and scar tissue forming in the front part of your ankle joint, limiting range of motion and causing pain, just as you’ve described. It’s attributed to repeated strain of the front portion of your ankle joint.
It sounds like your doctor has taken the right steps with an MRI given the length of pain – it’s good news that there’re no bony spurs or visible deformities.
Unfortunately, I cannot recommend TCM in this instance as there is no scientific evidence behind it for sports-related injuries.
What I’d do instead –
The treatment for anterior impingement is conservative or surgical.
Conservative treatment is basically some of what you’ve already tried: Rest, anti-inflammatory medications/steroid injections to relieve pain and swelling, as well as physiotherapy.
Physiotherapy plays a big role in conservative treatment to help you rehabilitate. This is what I’d focus my attention on if I were you.
A well-planned programme can help you to reduce pain, improve the range of motion in your ankle, and break down scar tissue. A sport medicine doctor in conjunction with a physiotherapist will be able to plan a thorough rehab programme for you.
If conservative treatment doesn’t work, your doctor may recommend minimally invasive surgery. This can be done with an ankle arthroscopy.
TLDR:
“What should I do?” – See a sports medicine doctor for an assessment/examination and proper rehab plan in conjunction with a physiotherapist.
“Should I go for another injection to see if the pain fully goes away?” – Likely to be a temporary fix only from what you’ve told me. Your sport doctor can advise accordingly.
“Or should I try alternative medicine like TCM?” – No. 🙂
“I wonder if those ‘tui na’ massage are of any help.” – No. 🙂
Cheers
