I've never heard the "splinting" explanation before. I've been told that it's the body's way of prioritizing the routing of plasma and red/white blood cells to

I've never heard the "splinting" explanation before. I've been told that it's the body's way of prioritizing the routing of plasma and red/white blood cells to the damaged area for cell repair and immune response as well as clearing out damaged tissue. I've also been told that the only bad inflammation is chronic inflammation. This was from a sports medicine doctor during a conversation about our sports trainers. The doctor was also against the heavy use of cryotherapy by our trainers because, according to her, it prolonged recovery. She actually encouraged applying heat instead of cold for non-injuries (e.g., post-workout, pre-competition, etc.) where your body may not have an inflammatory response to increase blood flow to the areas and that applying cold would just increase the chance of actual injury.