hi thank-you for providing the brief history of your daughter. A thorough musculoskeletal assessment is advised followed by MRI. As already the MRI shows the high grade near thickness tear of the anterior TFL, a full time brace may help to an extent. Now understanding that the ligament injuries will land into healing stages of a fibrous tissues. which needs a proper rehabilitation program like the sports physical therapy to regain the full movement. In future the reassessment of the TFL shall be performed by an MRI of to assess the nature of the healing. Depending upon the grade of the tear either a conservative or a Surgical treatment plan is selected. if the surgeon has planned for conservative than the healing time will be little longer as tr fibrous tissue has to enter the healing of the ligament. Also, physical therapy plays a very important role to keep the future function of the ankle joint. If these measures are not kept into consideration than the future pain and aches of the same location can arrive which I see regularly in my clinical practice. keeping in mind that your daughter is just 18, I recommend to use the spint as much as possible and undergo sports physical therapy. This should help your daughter. Regards Jay Indravadan Patel