A lateral ankle sprain is a common sports injury. It is especially common in sports such as basketball, soccer, running, and volleyball. In the United States, lateral ankle sprains have a reported incidence of more than one million patients per year. This is equivalent to a total of 2.15 ankle sprains per 1000 persons per year including both first time and recurrent lateral ankle sprains. The severity of associated ligament injury can best be diagnosed through delayed physical examination (±5 days post-injury). Additionally, physical examination is a suitable tool to identify subsequent risk factors and therefore plays an important role in designing a successful (personalized) treatment and (re-)injury prevention. Depending on the identified individual risk factors, conservative treatment is the treatment of choice consisting of functional rehabilitation. When conventional treatment fails, surgery is indicated to provide mechanical stability.