that your GP listens to your description, for there is often little to feel at the site of the fracture. A ‘pinch test’ can confirm a stress fracture of the calcaneus (heel bone) earlier than you’d be able to feel the swelling of healing callus in the tibia

toes.SignsYou’ll probably find that the area swells or has visible blood under the skin, and that a Thompson’s Test (in which the doctor squeezes your calf while you lie face-down with your lower leg hanging off the couch) won’t produce foot movement

of the joint is filled by a thick-walled bursa – the bunion. Bunion-sufferers often lose their transverse arch under the metatarsal heads, which exaggerates the problem.Medical investigationsAn x-ray is unnecessary, and blood tests will only exclude

.Medical investigationsIf there is doubt about the diagnosis, you may need the usual x-rays and scans, not forgetting that the pain may originate in a disc lesion in your back. Damage to the veins can be excluded using a Doppler, a test using sound waves.What else could

and abuse to which it has been subjected.—Dr Patrick Milroy, RW Medical Advisor

were probably just unlucky in developing the condition, and would probably be doubly unlucky were it to return. I would suggest that you could start running as soon as the rash has dried up and the scabs have disappeared.—Patrick Milroy, RW Medical

it.— Patrick Milroy, RW Medical Adviser

to walk on, let alone run.SignsComparison with the other knee will allow your doctor to confirm the swelling of blood within the joint, and they may or may not draw this off before using other tests on the knee’s stability. When a knee is freshly swollen

will be painful. Outward movement of the hip will be restricted by spasm and pain. Complete ruptures are uncommon.Medical investigationThe simple test of the doctor trying to part the knees while the patient is lying flat is usually the only investigation required

doctor may try Clarke’s test, in which they’ll pull the kneecap towards your toes while inviting you to gently straighten your knee. You’ll feel pain; they’ll feel a roughness or grating as the uneven rear surface of the patella moves through the femoral