3. Compress the knee with elastic bandages.
Compressing the knee will help reduce the swelling. The elastic bandage doesn’t need to be wrapped around tightly because it will cause your blood to not be able to flow freely.
If it’s too tight also, it will cause pain and more swelling. You should check the elastic bandage often to see if the swelling has gone down. You can also touch it to see if it’s gone down. Once the swelling goes away, you can cease using the elastic bandage. Even if the pain is still there, you can treat the pain with other methods.
Compressing will help with pain, but it is mainly to reduce the swelling. A swollen knee is unsightly and if it’s not bandaged, it can cause you to want to pick at it, which could cause an infection. It will take much longer for your MCL sprain to heal.