Please help with new knee injury

[fishritewillie]

On Sunday while playing basketball my right knee buckled outward slightly causing instant pain. I immediately started RICE for the next three days. The day after the injury my knee was very sore but only had a little swelling. Since then the pain is almost gone, I have no trouble walking, going up/down stairs even hopping on two legs..... this causes no pain. I do have the following symptoms a clicking/popping sensation behind my knee - no pain just something new, I have difficulty bringing my heel up towards the back of leg while in the standing position - When I try this I get to about 100 degrees then it feels stiff with a little weak/ discomfort in the back of my knee on the lateral side (If I use my hand like doing a quad stretch I can bring the heel up to about 120 dedree angle), the last thing is if I'm seated for any length of time it takes me about 10 to 15 steps to loosen the knee back up then I'm just fine.

Does anyone have any guesses what might be going on with this new injury? I'm not looking for a diagnosis just some possibilities to help point me in the right direction. Thanks for all the help

[Heidi]

Hi,

Could be a number of things, but i'm thinking either lateral meniscus tear or lateral collateral ligament damage.

If it is either you have done well to apply RICE and keep it up. The stiffness may be due to muscle tightness which often happens following injury to protect the knee from further damage.

Continue to stretch the quads, hamstrings and calfs daily and see how it feels in a week. If no improvement, I would visit a physical therapist or similar for an assessment.

Have a look at this section for some ideas on what you should be doing:

http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/knee_injuries.htm#lateral