Sports doctor breaks down 'severe' Alexander Zverev injury and if surgery will be needed

Alexander Zverev may not require surgery even if he has suffered a "full grade three injury" on his right ankle, according to sports doctor Brian Sutterer MD. Zverev cried in pain as he hit the floor after badly rolling his ankle during the French Open semi-final against Rafael Nadal.

The world No 3 ended up needing a wheelchair to exit the court, before returning a few minutes later on crutches to officially withdraw from the match. Replays from the incident showed just how bad the injury was, but no official diagnosis has been made yet as to whether anything was broken.

Zverev took to social media later in the evening to state that it was "very serious" and will provide further updates in the future. It's not currently clear how long Zverev will likely be out of action, but Sutterer MD has given an insight on his YouTube channel on what could have happened to the German's ankle.

"What this looks like is a standard inversion, or lateral ankle sprain," he said. "This is the traditional low ankle sprain mechanism."

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Sutterer MD then goes into more detail on the three "key ligaments" on the outside of an ankle. He states that the ATFL ligament is the "most commonly torn with an ankle sprain" with the other two being associated with more severe types of sprain.

"When the ankle is plantar flexed or pointed down and it goes into inversion, that makes it even more likely to injure that ATFL ligament that's most commonly torn as opposed to if the toes were pointed upwards," he added. "Everything about this position: plantar flexion, foot makes contact, goes into severe amount of ankle inversion - fits with the traditional low ankle sprain, likely