knee fall, maniscal damage?

[bikelet]

Sorry to hear about your knee pain. The physio appointment may have aggravated your pain but I doubt that it would have made your tear worse.

If you think about it, the ACL's role is to stop two bones from moving in separate directions- particularly when there is sudden acceleration or decceleration such as when running and changing directions. If the (normal) ACL can handle that amount of force, I doubt that there is much a physio can do to make it worse by tugging on it with the arms, the forces really don't compare. With an injured ACL, it might be more vulnerable but it is still a strong ligament. The other thing to consider is that your muscles will be guarding your knee (even subconsciously) so I don't think that a physio could damage your ACL while you are awake and conscious of them trying to move your leg. ACL injuries tend to occur when there is unanticipated high loading movement which the muscles weren't prepared for.

So at this point in time, I think you could try some gentle range of movement exercises in an attempt to ease your pain. Also try gentle static muscle holds of the quadriceps and hamstrings to help increase feelings of stability and to help with the pain. If you go for the MRI then hopefully you won't have to go through this experience again. You could tell other people about this experience so that they won't be so brutal if they need to do the test again- which they shouldn't really if the physios have made up their mind and referred you off.