Knee pain after Left Medial Ligament Injury

[Mad_Highlander]

Over 8 weeks ago I landed badly on my left knee playing football and caused a small tear in my left medial ligament. The ligament itself seems to have healed over this period and I'm now close to playing football again after doing some rehabilitation work. My big problem is that whenever I'm standing for a long period of time (I work as a teacher and this involves long periods of time standing) or sitting on a chair with my knee bent the knee seizes and is very painful to bend or straighten. Once I do bend it and loosen the knee up the pain goes away and I can walk normally again. Furthermore I don't experience this pain at all when running or doing the rehab exercises. The knee also feels strong when doing twisting and sharp turns so hence why I feel the ligament itself has healed. I have suffered a similar medial injury on my right knee and I don't recall experiencing this pain when standing.

I've been experiencing this since I did the injury and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Does anyone have an idea what is causing this and am I ok to start playing football again when I don't feel this pain when physically active?

[Heidi]

Hi
Does the knee feel like it locks, or is it more just muscular stiffness?
If there is some locking then it could possibly indicate some associated cartilage damage:
http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/knee/medialmeniscus.htm

If not, then it sounds a bit like movie-goers knee - a symptom really - that causes stiffness and pain after long periods of immoblity, usually in sitting though.
This can be associated with patellofemoral pain syndrome and so this is also worth a look at:
http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/knee/patellofemoral_pain_syndrome.php

If you can run with no problems at all and it doesn't seem to link to this problem (i.e. the knee is not unusually stiff the afterwards of the next day etc) then I can't see a problem with returning to sport.

I don't know if you have already, but I would recommend lots of stretching to ensure you have full movement in the knee and also some sports massage to help keep the muscles supple.

[thad412]

I would try not standing still so long. I would try walking around when talking, or at least shifting your weight. I would try taking some over the counter anti inflammatory for a few days and see if that helps. You may have to go have it looked at by a dr, or go to therapy to get your muscles built back up.