stiffness in knee

I had ACL operation on knee last September using hamstring. Surgeon said everything is fine but there was some arthritus in the joint which would affect me later in life. I have been running alot to get myself fit and lose weight. Have so far lost two and a half stone and i am now at my right weight.
Probmlem i am having is after running i get a sharp pain running through the entire knee, it goes stiff for a couple of hours after. There is no swelling or heat off the knee and next day it is more or less fine apart from when i tightnen my quads and get the sharp pain throughout the knee as idescribed above.
I always have this sharp pain through out knee all the time. I have a strange sensation on the front of knee tendon. It feels like i have a really tight plaster about 2 inches square over the knee tendon.
When i bend my knee i have a sharp pain above and below the knee in the front.
I really dont think this is arthritus . When i saw surgeon he checked ACL and he said everything was fine but to rub in anti inflamattory ceam in to knee and it was just my arthritus causing the pain.
The knee also clicks and clonks ocasionally after excersise.
I stopped running for a couple of weeks to rest it as surgeon requested but sharp pain is still there so its not the running that is causing the problem so what am i to do? I dont want pain in knee to be there for rest of my life as i'm only 45. What could be the problem ? Please help.

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Probmlem i am having is after running i get a sharp pain running through the entire knee, it goes stiff for a couple of hours after. There is no swelling or heat off the knee and next day it is more or less fine apart from when i tightnen my quads and get the sharp pain throughout the knee as idescribed above.

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Can't say for sure but it is very common to get some tracking problems with the patella on the femur. this problems has a lot to do with the function of the quads and could account for the pain on contraction and stiffness after running. Other problems could be tendonitis of the patella tendon or the femoral insertion in the patella. These problems are all somewhat related. It is common to have these sorts of problems following ACL surgery.

However i would get it checked out with a PT to be sure. if it is a case of patello-femoral. The treatment is often very straight forward and may not take much to improve

Hay Oscarman

Occasionally post surgery you can have an increased local inflammatory response and/or irritation in your local tendons / tendon sheaths and/or increased arthritic pain. However, I believe the anti-inflam gel / rest would have helped, and it is likely that with high impact exercise (running) you would have experienced pain earlier than the next day and redness/heat/swelling.

If you put your leg out straight, keep it relaxed and get someone to move your patella sideways / up down etc. then do the same movements with some strong compression (make sure they move the patella as far as it will go without being sadistic of course ;) ). Does this hurt? cause similar pain? click/clunk? etc? Let me know! Sometimes PF problems can be overlooked even if it is "tracking" properly.

I completely agree with Gcoe though, get a therapist to assess you for a full diagnosis. It could likely be patella tendonitis, patellofemoral pain syndrome etc.