Shin Splints
December 9th, 2015
At our clinic we often see patients with the condition shin splints. This is a common condition which can be helped with exercise or treatment.
Many sports enthusiasts can have shin splints, this is an injury we see a great deal of, especially young footballers and young rugby players, tennis and other sports including golfing fanatics. Cricketer James Kirtley has suffered and footballers including Andy Cole who was temporarily laid off by this condition. Shin splints can stem from playing too much sport on hard surfaces or because there may be weakness in the muscle, often we see this injury on our running assessments or we have noticed on consultation people with flat feet or high arches suffer from shin splints.
What Does Shin Splints Feel Like?
Tenderness in the shin area, generally pain when toes are bent or when the ankle is bent.
Treatment involves rest and ice and visiting your local podiatrist or physiotherapist. We recommend that when it is in its acute stages you ice, ice and more ice. On consultation we would also examine the footwear to make sure that the patient is wearing the appropriate footwear. We may also involve our Sports Massage therapist to loosen up muscles to help aid recovery. Changing the way you are running will also be assessed to make sure that the running is correct.
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