Achilles ruptures are massive injuries. The biggest tendon in your body snaps and you will often hear a gunshot sound and it feels like someone’s kicked you in the back of the heel. They can happen in sports people, but they can also happen in people that are returning back to activity, or if you’re really unlucky, just breaking into a light jog. Some people come to us first thinking it’s their calf muscle, some people their doctor and get imaging, others go to ED. If you’re unsure we are a good first step as we can diagnose, immobilise and set up a specialist referral. A foot and ankle specialist is your first stop. Some get surgery, some just rehab. Either way you’ll be seeing us for a while. Rehab is long, lonely and hard. There’ll be a long time spent in a boot, up to three months, then a long time regaining strength and power. This is a graded approach that can take 12 months, and often getting back to your peak athletic performance is quite challenging. You really want to make sure you have the best people in your corner with such a big injury, that see a lot of these injuries and are used to helping people get all the way back to 100%