What is a stretching or tearing of ligament?

You have ligaments all over your body. They hold your bones together. They are very strong but flexible. Joints are where you can bend, elbow, knuckle, knee, wrist etc. There are usually larger bones meeting at this point which generally has a lot of smaller bones in it. The easist one to see is the patella, or kneecap. This is a small bone that covers and protects the knee joint. Ligments keep this from falling apart. If you were to damage your knee badky you might be able to slide your kneecap all the way off of the knee! If you tear one, it is very painful and usually needs to be reattached surgically. The joint won't function properly without it. You can either tear the end off of the bone or snap the ligament in the middle. Think of the cables holding up a bridge, they could just come off the bridge or they could break in the middle. Either way it is a catastrophy.

Hope this helps!

A sprain