Persistant Calf Injuries

I am a 32 year old soccer player who occasionally runs inbetween to keep / stay fit.  I never had an injury up until i was 25, but have had a couple a year since.

2 years ago I tore my calf pretty badly (Grade 2) and have had niggly issues with that calf ever since, I cant seem to get over the issue.  Just today in went to go for a jog and got to 1km before the outer part of my calf became tight and sore, so I walked back home.

Can anyone recommend some kind of recovery plan

 to get me going again, sooooo frustrating......

Have you been to a physio and got some treatment and advice regarding exercises and stretching? Or had a sports massage? Or even done some self-massage of the calf?

Its a sad fact that some injuries are very hard to come back from. They become things you have to learn to live with. I had a problem with my sciatic nerve in my lower back. No matter how many physios I saw or exercise I did, it always returns. One thing I found that did help was making sure that I kept a good diet with lots of vitamins.

Hope you get it sorted.

It might be worth seeing if you can get an MRI to see if that initial tear ever actually heeled. Also, look at your running form: is the way you are running (e.g. excessive heel striking) putting a lot of pressure on your calf muscle and causing it to be exceptionally tight or imbalanced making it more prone to picking up problems?

Okay - had to ask. Sympathies. It may be worth seeing if you can get refered for proper investigation (good luck with that!). Meanwhile all I can suggest is self-massage (hands or with a tennis ball, or "The Stick" or a foam roller - whatever works for you), and stretches. Maybe try wearing compression calf sleeves to give support to the muscle?

A foam roller sorted out (within a month!) a persistent calf problem I had had for 7+ years. Was bloody agony to begin with but I stuck with it and it really did the trick.

I have calf problems too at the moment. I don't find my foam roller gets deep enough on them, but a ball under them certainly does the job.