Knee problems while practicing for the first time in 7 years

Hi all,

To be honest I have not been looking through the forum to see if this problem has been discussed before. Probably is my first thought but i guess all injury's are different.

Let me begin... I used to be a top athlete 7 years ago, I then stopped doing sports due to various reasons. 2 weeks ago I started rugby practice and now I am sitting with pain in both knees. I am thinking its due too doing to much too soon. The pain is sitting right under both knee caps. From what I could see is that it might be a Tibia Stress fracture?!?

The pain doesn't really go away. When I do take pain medication it helps but later its back in full capacity.

Can someone please help me get more info about this. I don't have a medical aid and the doctors are very very expensive.

If I need to supply more information please let me know. I want to get back on the field as I don't have allot of years left and want to enjoy it while I'm still young.

Thanx
Driaan

Hi Dude,
Base on the info. you gave me and the pain area, it seems that it would be ligamentous patellae tendinitis (the tendon below the knee cap inflamed). Well, what I suggest would be icing, stretch you quadriceps. See what happens after 1 - 2 weeks. By the way, since you have not been training for a long time, you should resume your training regime gradually.

Hope this can help.
Cheeers,
Kenneth

Hi kennethckyuen,

Thank you for the reply. I have started with the heat and icing last night ritual and hopefully will start seeing results soon. Its kind of iritating having this sort of pain while either sitting or even sleeping. would you suggest that I get on n bike first to reduce impact on the knees while I'm getting fit?

Thanx again
Driaan

If it ain't getting better, it does sound like a patella tendinopathy, so you may need to start eccentric loading exercises. Which basically means doing 1 legged squats, do them on an incline of about 30 degrees under the ankle. Also orthotics and biomechanic exercises may help greatly... Sorta thing you should get a bit of physio input to make sure you got it right.

Cheers,
Pud

Hi Driaannel,
Yep, a gym bike of low intensity would be a good choice to start with. Once you are getting better, you would be doing eccentric training like Pudding_bowl suggested. By the way, some physio treatment would be helpful.

Cheers,
Kenneth