The aim of this article was to evaluate statistical data reported in the literature regarding the prognostic factors in lateral ankle sprain, the most frequent injury in athletes. At present, the associations between baseline prognostic factors and recovery are largely inconsistent: however, in the short-term follow-up, we found consistent findings from at least two studies with moderate risk of bias, for weight-bearing status and injury grade, indicative of moderate evidence. There was limited evidence for age, pain reproduced by ligament stress test and patient-reported measures of physical activity levels. In the medium-term follow-up, pain, weight-bearing, mechanism of injury and functional activity score were identified as prognostic factors of recovery, but with limited evidence. In the long-term, follow-up, female gender, age, injury severity, number of injured ligaments and presence of bone bruise were indicated as prognostic factors, but with insufficient evidence.