Grade 1 Medial Ligament Sprain- recovery time

[David Farrington]

9 weeks ago I was playing soccer and I got kicked on the front of my knee, it was sore but I was able to play on. A mild pain remained for the next few weeks on the inside of my knee and I went to see a physio at the hospital. The girl who seen me was a student and fairly inexperienced as she kept having to go to her superiors for help to answer my questions. She said after examining me that I had not done any ligament damage to my knee and that the injury was muscular, she said that I should make a full recovery after 8 weeks. I asked her if I would be okay to start jogging on my knee (this was 4 weeks after the injury) and she said yes.
I thought it better to be cautious though and waited the full 8 weeks before resuming any exercise, last week I went for a jog and my knee felt fine. I was confident the injury had healed so tried running on a treadmill, I done 10 minutes of interval training at a reasonably quick pace and over the last few days the pain has come back. It is worst when lying in bed and I roll over on my knee, this causes shooting pains to the inside of my knee. I suspect that the injury is more serious than diagnosed, could it possibly be a medial ligament sprain? How long should I leave it until I try jogging again? Any help would be much appreciated.

[Heidi]

Hi David,

MCL damage is possible although rarely occurs from a kick to the front of the knee. Did your knee collapse inwards? or twist?

Either way I would recommend stopping any running and resting for the next 4 weeks. During this time ice the knee after any other activity (lots of walking etc) and stretch the hamstrings quads and calf regularly. If you can, get to see someone who can do sports massage and ultrasound. These should help.

After a couple of weeks, try to start strengthening the knee with low weights and high repetitions doing exercises such as squats, lunges and calf raises. Advanced this by performing knee extensions and curls. Make sure everything is progressed slowly and if you feel any pain, go back and start again.

If this all goes well, slowly start running, interspersed with periods of walking (e.g. run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes) gradually increasing the running time and reducing the walking. Continue to apply ice after running.

Obviously this is all just a guide, my best advice would be to visit a sports injury clinic to get a proper assessment (by someone with some experience!)