UAN: Article type:-->Knowledge is the power to reducing your injury risk. Join us on a tour of the body’s components, and look at how they become damaged.BonesBones are essentially the scaffolding of the body, and although they have some

UAN:230 Article type:-->Because stress fractures of the calcaneus (heel bone) and tibia and fibula (lower-leg bones) share similar symptoms, investigations and treatments, we’re grouping them together here.Symptoms As with all stress fractures, you

UAN:209 Article type:-->SymptomsWhere the tendon joins the calcaneal bone, friction can cause the spaces between the tendon, bone and skin to swell and inflame with bursitis. This constitutes a calcaneal bursa. Apart from swelling over the back

UAN:216 Article type:-->SymptomsThis is a stress fracture of the second (or sometimes third) metatarsal. You’ll feel pain in the middle of the long bone(s) of your foot, which will slowly increase with distance, reaching a crescendo as you end your

relieved when barefoot. You’ll experience acute pain if you compress the sides of the foot together.SignsYour transverse arch has usually become flattened, bringing the heads of your metatarsals (midfoot bones) together and compressing the nerve between

UAN:232 Article type:-->Symptoms There is pain and tenderness along the inside of the lower tibia (shin). You are probably an overpronator with uncorrected feet and may have begun more hill sessions or speedwork.Signs A light touch to the bone

may involve other bones and ligaments, too.Medical investigationsIf you only have local tenderness over the ligaments, a case can be made for not x-raying the ankle. Any suspicion of a fracture as indicated by bone pain makes an x-ray mandatory

UAN:223 Article type:-->Osteochondritis is an inflammation of developing bone in children, in which an area becomes softened and deformed in the lower limbs or back. Osgood-Schlatter’s disease is a form of this which occurs at the upper front

, unless further damage is suspected in an elite sportsperson, when an ultrasound or muscle scan might be applicable.What else could it be?This is where the difficulties start, as the symptoms may be very similar to those experienced where the pubic bones

fracture or stress fracture of the calcaneum (heel bone), bone disease and local infection, or simply bruising of the heel’s fat pad.Self-treatmentRest aside, ice packs, good heel cushioning and a heel cup to firm up and thicken the under-heel fat pad, may