Recurring pain in foot - exercise related

[Benny P]

Hi there, I wondered if anyone has any suggestions of what might be up with my foot!

I'm a 28yr old male, and have been experiencing a recurring pain in my left foot, which feels bone related (though I'm not sure). It came on all of a sudden about 6 months ago, apparently out of nowhere, and left me unable to walk properly for approx 3 days, before it all of a sudden disappeared. It has reappeared fairly regularly over the months, maybe 8-10 times where I have noticed it enough to not be able to walk comfortably, though thankfully it's never quite been as bad as that first time. Its appearance usually seems to follow a bout of exercise, though not always. This week it came back fairly badly and the night before I had been doing leg press exercises in the gym, which I don't usually do.

The pain is located on the inside of my foot, approx halfway down from my ankle to my big toe. Looking at a diagram of the foot bones, I would say it's around the cuboid/medial cuneiform/intermediate cuneiform bones (or the joint(s) between them). It hurts only when I walk on it, and feels almost like something needs to "crack" to relieve the pain. When the pain is there, if I instead put weight through the outside or the inside of my foot while walking, it doesn't hurt - only hurts when I walk normally with my weight going through the normal force plane in my foot. Also, the foot feels stiff and the pain is at its worst when I start walking - i.e. if I have been sitting down for a while and then get up. The more I walk, the less it hurts, until it simply disappears after a while... but then comes back on next time I sit down and get up again. When it comes on, this all lasts for 1-3 days before it completely disappears again.

I play football (soccer) twice a week, swim once a week and do a bike session in the gym (45-60mins) once a week, and occasional weights sessions. The pain does seem to come on after the bike sessions more than anything else - so possibly something to do with the forces going through my foot as it pushes the pedal. Soccer doesn't seem to cause it. I only started exercising at this level at the start of this year, 2-3 months before the pain started, so I am pretty sure it's related to this. However at least once it has come on out of nowhere, apparently not after any specific bout of exercise.

I have changed both my work shoes and my trainers once in the last 6 months so I'm pretty confident it's nothing to do with that.

I have been wondering if its a stress fracture - not that I have experienced one of those before - but it feels sort of like what I would imagine a stress fracture to feel like... could be completely wrong though. I am reluctant to go to my GP at this stage before I try and learn a bit more about what might be wrong with it, though an x-ray could help I suppose.

Many thanks in advance for your help...

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[Podiatry]

Hi Benny, firstly.. I hope you've visited your doctor with this. I'd also suggest making an appointment with a Podiatrist who specialises in Biomechanics, especially if you're playing a lot of sport. One thing you may be checked for is Plantar Fasciitis. Once you've been checked out your Podiatrist may give you stretching exercises, such as stretching your calf muscles several times a day. Hope that helps.