I am a tennis player and had minor foot ankle problems all fall that I attributed to playing tennis. In December while I was putting on a high heel dress boot, I felt my ankle crack as I put the boot on (and pain), but the second my foot was in the boot, it no longer hurt. Over the next few weeks I noticed it hurting when ever I tried to put my foot in a shoe (the action of flexing my ankle to put on a shoe) and eventually my foot began to hurt more. In early January I had an x-ray did not show anything, but a MRI showed a fairly large osteochondral lesion of the talar dome (9 x 7 x 5mm). I spent 8 weeks in a walking boot and then 4 weeks of PT. My ankle would have some good days and not good days. 1st part of April I did something to that ankle and my ankle swelled up quite a bit and was very painful. Went to see the ankle guru in the same OS group. He wanted to try a steroid shot before arthroscopic surgery to see if I had any improvement after 2 weeks. Overall, my ankle is moving better, but it still hurts when I have been on it too long or done too much or when I have been sitting too long. Still get swelling on the both sides of the ankle. Just want to know what is going to get the best result so that I can get back to all my activities! The steroid shot won't heal the ankle or stop the pain, just reduces the swelling. Should I avoid surgery, or could surgery fix the problem so that I can hopefully resume my normal activites, most hopefully tennis. I do understand that osteochondral fractures will never completely heal and can cause problems (minor ?) from here on out.