Hi Stamford

If the snow boarding incident was the first incident then that may have been the causative event - what started it all off. that would have been the mechanism of the injury. And now the area is sensitivsed so whenever you put the boot on it squeezes the nerve and that is what sends it off.


Yes I still think that is quite likely to be the nerve. The sharpish/ache may be more to do with the nerve endings covering the nerve are involved rather than the the nerve itself. Sorry - but I couldn't make sense of you description of where the pain is. It is quite hard to describe this sort of thing over the net.


An alternative to the nerve theory is that you could have something wrong with the joint where two calf bones meet at the top of the lower leg (the superior tibio-fibular joint). However this is harder to reason through given the clear description you have of when the paint comes on. If the ankle cracks easily then that is probably unrelated. However it could indicate a dysfunction of the inferior tibio-fibular joint/ankle joint which is related to the superior tibio-fibular joint. I think this is much less likely anyway. And no cracking the ankle shouldn't cause nerve problems.

There is a couple of clinical tests that can confirm the likelihood of it being nerve pain. One test stretches the course of the nerve so if there is a problem it is quite a youch factor when it is performed. The other test you tap over the course of the nerve to see if you get a sharp pain /electric shokc like response when you hit the site of compression. However these are really quite hard to do yourself and I don't think I could accurately describe them to you. Why not get it looked at by PT? It would be worth it, given it is interfering with your bike riding.