While football is busy taking most of the attention in the States, its international competitor futbol is catching some recent headlines. Recently, Manchester United’s Phil Jones has picked up yet another injury, with this time being shin splints! Jones had only been back on the field less than a week after being forced to miss four games due to a hamstring injury. While Jones was thought to have recovered from the previous injury, and was training for a past Sunday’s Premier League game against longtime rival Chelsea. However, on the Saturday before the game, Jones started to feel soreness in the front of his legs and was unable to play in both the Sunday game against Chelsea and the Monday Old Tafford clash vs. the Blues. Unfortunately for now, the team’s managers are still unsure how long it will take Jones to recover.
As many of my patients in the Crofton and Gambrills area of Maryland know, you don’t have to be a professional athlete to get shin splints. In fact, many of my patients who present with this horrible pain are just trying to get started in a running routine. Unfortunately, the severe pain we feel in our shins is actually caused by small tears in the area where our lower leg muscles attach to our shin bone (or tibia). These tears occur because of over-use and overstretching of these muscles, especially following periods or inactivity, or during extended use.
Some of the best ways we can prevent or reduce the occurrence of shin splints is making sure we have the right shoes for our body type, and making sure to stretch our calves and legs regularly even when we aren’t involved in exercise. Additionally, always being sure to use warm up and cool down exercises, and to take breaks when you start feeling shin splints coming on. Taking these necessary precautions may reduce the severity and recurrence of these muscle pains. Ultimately, anytime you have longstanding pain that isn’t easily resolved, it is vital that you see a local specialist. They will be able to study your body type to truly get to the bottom of what is causing your pain, and can focus on finding the true source of your pain, rather than just treating the symptoms itself. And if you’re in our neck of the woods don’t hesitate to call us Crofton Podiatry!
By Brad Toll.