Hi, I'm no where near your clinic but I'd appreciate any guidance/support... Which I know is hard without actually seeing me. I'm 28, I play 6 aside football for 1 hour once a week on a Thursday with NO pain. I'm active at the gym 5-6 days a week and I'm very conscious of strengthening areas of weakness and improving but also ensuring I get enough recovery/rest in as I know how strenuous 1 hour of football can be on 4G pitches. The issue I've got & had for years is I get a throbbing pain in my calves for 3-5 days after the day of the football, specifically in the side of the calves in between the calf & shin bone. I keep getting palmed off with the "it's probably shin splints" but there is no pain in my shins and I've had a few physios rule this out but without actually diagnosing the issue. To re-iterate... I play football without any pain at all from start to finish... If I try and play more than once a week or even go for a run the pain is there... It's more prominent when I push off my toes and I can feel it when I do lunges in the gym... Again if within 3-5 days of playing football and then the pain goes. I hope that's enough info and I do hope you can give me any suggestions! Thanks, Sami

Hi Sami - that's more than enough infomation for me to be able to help you... I don't think this is shin splints per se, but it is a similar type issue involving a muscle called tibialis posterior that runs on the inside of your shin, but attches/starts on the outside. Anything that "warms up" or gets better with activity only to do you in a few days down the road is due to a chronic inflammation tyep situation. Ice wont really help or will stretching, but getting better control of your foot posture and specifically strenghtning this muscle will. Why you feel it when you push off with your toes is because it works to try to work/stabilise your foot and when you lunge your stretch it. Have a look here

and this is quiet handy for understanding foot function

Hope this helps - give it a good few weeks. The Guru