Thanks for that. I'm having trouble finding the join between them, maybe as I had never heard of either muscle before you just said them. So the VMO is the muscle right above the knee on the inner side that bulges out a bit right? If so, where is the join between that and the adductor? I know I still have tenderness right on the jointline on the MCL because that's where the physio does frictions on it.
Additional Comment I forgot:
Ok, to satisfy overwhelming demand, or if no one believes that then just to give me something more productive to do than just mindless worrying, I've done a chronology of my injury from day 1 to now. It was supposed to make everything more simple but it's so long it might do the opposite. Any questions let me know. Enjoy!

March 2009

· - Fell down in gap between train and platform, with right leg remaining on platform and left in the gap. Severe bang, but unsure with shock whether any twisting was involved. Felt sore and it didn’t just feel like a normal bang, but was able to play some part in football game I was on my way to. Put ice on immediately after getting home as could feel it begin to seize up.
· Woke up in night due to excruciating pain in knee, and any movement of the leg whatsoever from its nearly straight position was nearly impossible.
· Pain still very severe in the morning, but knee not that swollen.>>
· Went to hospital next day for x-ray and was told that nothing was broken.

March – April 2009

· - Improvements felt day by day and after approximately 6 weeks I started playing occasional games of football. I did not feel any weakness in it, but felt regular sharp twinges of pain on inner side of knee and was careful not to kick or tackle with that leg. Knee would always ache more the day after a game, but none of the pain was sufficient in itself to make me not want to do it.
· - Twinges would be felt a lot more when playing on uneven surfaces (i.e. grass rather than astro turf) so I only played once on that surface.
· Twinges would also be felt if I went out and drank as I would cease to be careful with it, especially when dancing.

April – July 2009

· - Day by day improvement lasted about 8 weeks after the injury, then promptly stopped at a point where, as long as I was careful, I was able to play football without too much pain once a week (I used to play 4 times a week). I felt pain otherwise mostly when walking to work which I did each day (45 mins each way) and a few hours afterwards, then at a constant low level the rest of the time.
· - After approximately 4 weeks of this I saw a physio who thought it was a MCL sprain but said it would be fully better after a couple more weeks.
· - I still did not feel any improvement however, and at the end of July saw a different physio. She agreed that it was an MCL sprain but thought the reason it wasn’t getting better was because of problems with my posture. She said that my knees and feet rolled in when I walked (but that I didn’t have flat feet) and there was too big a curvature in my back and so this put pressure on the damaged ligament stopping it healing. On my 2nd appointment with her she performed cross-friction massage on it and for the first time in over 2 months I felt very small, but recognisable day by day improvement from the next day onwards.
· - By this point I had stopped playing football and only felt the associated twinges on the infrequent occasions that I got drunk and forgot about it.
· - At this time I got orthotics for my shoes, and did a lot of work focussing on my posture and walking correctly.

August – September 2009

· - An Wikipedia reference-linkMRI scan at the beginning of August confirmed there was a recovering grade 2 MCL sprain with minor patella fissuring.
· - Improvement continued with 2 more sessions of frictions to a point where I felt confident to return to playing football. I played in 2 games in mid-September where I felt some aching towards the end of the games, but had no adverse reaction later or the next day.

Mid-September 2009

· - In the middle of September I went away to begin 9 months travelling around South America. Despite it feeling ok on the flight over I felt some pain in the 2 hour car journey after arrival where we were very cramped in. That night we went out to celebrate and I got very drunk. Although I danced I cannot remember doing anything specific to damage it but the next morning it ached significantly more.
· - This aching did not go away and I remember thinking at the time with the associated pain it had set me back about a month.
· - I tried to rest it as frequently as I could but in contrast with before this incident whenever I sat down normally the knee in general started to ache significantly and would increase the longer I was sat down. This was alleviated when I kept it up, but would only delay the aching somewhat.
· - It was still (and has always been since the early stages) painless when I lay down in bed however.
· - I would also still get pain when walking around for any long periods.
· - At this time I saw a physio in Santiago, Chile several times who used ultra-sound on it, but this had no effect.

November 2009

· - There was no improvement with this for approximately 6 weeks until I went to a national park on a 5 day walk. After some initial mild pain on the first day, this cleared and I hardly felt any problems with it at all despite walking on uneven ground for between 6 and 10 hours a day, even when I sat down at the end of the day (although I still kept my leg up).
· - Very soon after coming back from the national park however the pain returned to almost its previous level.

November 2009 – May 2010

· - Problems remained the same, but improved very slightly, in such small increments that I was only able to judge that they had improved when I looked back as each month passed.
· I would have good days and bad days, but in approximately March, for the first time since September, I had some days where I was able to walk around and might be able to go half an hour without even feeling a slight injury. The ability to do this came and went over the following months, although I was never able to match improvements or deteriorations with what I was doing at the time. After sitting down for any period of time I would always feel it for a while after.
· - Throughout this time I did not play football, do any running or do anything at any time which I could point to as being something I could avoid in future.
· - By the end of this I could sit in seats where my thighs were fully supported, with knees at right angles and feet resting gently on the floor for some time before the aching returned.
· - This aching could be described as being similar to stiffness like sleeping overnight in an incredibly uncomfortable position, and even though this ceased when I stood up etc it would return immediately if I sat down again soon after.
· - In addition to this I would still feel twinges in the inside of my knee with certain irregular movements of my body and legs, especially if I was kneeling down or on an uneven surface like a bed.
· - In swimming pools I gently tried breast stroke occasionally and by the end could do it without pain for a short period if I didn’t kick strongly.
· - I saw physios inColombia, Brazil and Mexico, but all were equally ineffective.

June – August 2010

 · - Immediately on returning from South America I saw a doctor and got referred to a physio and another MRI scan.
· - The 2nd MRI scan showed thickening in the ligament consistent with a chronic grade 2 tear but nothing else.
· - Physios performed friction massage on it and I started doing daily stretches on quads, calves, hamstrings and hip flexors as I was told that all were quite tight.
· - I was also encouraged to up my activity to strengthen the ligament and so attended a return to sports physio session involving twisting and turning and some ball work.
· - In doing this I felt next to no discomfort whatsoever whilst in action, even when twists and turns were involved, but the following day felt much more aching whilst sitting and slight twinges in the inner knee. This aching persisted for a week and a half after each of the 2 sessions, with no improvement from one day to the next until it finally began to settle down again to get back to its previous level.
· - I have not been able to see if this improvement continues with no activity as there have only been 3 such occasions, and 2 of them were followed by the sports sessions
· - The third set-back came 2 weeks ago (early August) after I received further advice to continue trying to attempt a graded return to full on activity. I wanted to be careful so did 3 minutes of jogging (with changes of direction included) on a Sunday then did 5 minutes of the same 2 days later (without any real discomfort on either occasion).
· - The 3 minutes of jogging provoked absolutely no adverse reaction but when I did the 5 minutes of running this was followed by 2 weeks of nearly zero improvement and pain at new points in my knee that had previously not been a problem.
· To fully put this into context, the 5 minutes of jogging that I did was accompanied by a new set of exercises to strengthen my quads that my physio had asked me to start a couple of days earlier involving small squats against a wall, for 20 sets of 10 seconds, twice a day. On the day in question I felt some discomfort doing these exercises in the region of my kneecap.
· Discomfort with these exercises continued on the following days so I have since stopped doing them.
· - The pain I have felt in the last 2 weeks has been characterised by the familiar aching after sitting for medium periods with occasional pain in the knee cap and in a specific point under the knee cap in a region I understand to be the Wikipedia reference-linkmeniscus. Pain behind the knee cap could not be provoked by prodding at any point on the knee but the meniscus one could, and more so by rubbing it.
· This has been different on different days with no recognisable pattern evident. On one day for instance I felt pain in the kneecap region on every step forward when I climbed stairs, but the next day this pain was only present when I was on my bike and pedalled too forcefully.
· - The aching tends to get worse as the day goes on, especially as I am at my desk most the day. I am currently cycling to work and back each day (4 miles each way), do all the stretches mentioned previously every day and have over the last couple of days increased the hamstring ones to several times a day as I find this can alleviate aching for a while. The specific pain in kneecap and meniscus regions has died down over the last couple of days but is still present at a very low and intermittent level.
· - The only times I can now guarantee being completely pain free are when I am lying down fully in bed and nearly all of the time when I am on my bike. I say nearly all the time as occasionally it still hurts seemingly within the knee behind the kneecap when I pedal particularly forcefully, as part of the ‘new’ pain in that area over the last couple of weeks. Certain types of seat are also good for it, although I cannot usually predict this, nor understand why it seems to ache more when I lie down but am not fully reclined, i.e. lying on bed but with pillows underneath my head so I can watch tv etc.
· - As an aside, after describing my symptoms to my physio the other day he started thinking that maybe there wasn’t anything wrong with the MCL any more. This does not appear to be correct though as I still definitely get pain in that specific region and there is significant sensitivity when cross-friction massage is carried out.

Anyone last till the end?
Additional Comment I forgot:
It seems like my last reply to alophysio has been deleted somewhere so just to make sure it's still out there -

Thanks for that. Do you have any tips for finding the region where there might be tenderness though? The VMO is the small muscle right above the knee on the inner side right? I think I'm just unsure where the adductor is and therefore where the join is between them.
Additional Comment I forgot:
It seems like my last reply to alophysio has been deleted somewhere so just to make sure it's still out there -

Thanks for that. Do you have any tips for finding the region where there might be tenderness though? The VMO is the small muscle right above the knee on the inner side right? I think I'm just unsure where the adductor is and therefore where the join is between them.