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

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

following injury, it is notoriously difficult to be sure of the exact diagnosis by simple examination, though tests to pull the tibia forward of the femur may be strongly positive if the excess fluid is first removed.Medical investigationsX-rays are going

as the upper leg, with the result that pelvic and upper leg injuries may sometimes be indistinguishable and may often become confused. By virtue of their anatomy, hip joints allow a wide range of movement, not only forwards and backwards, outwards and inwards

at the back and front of the thigh bone respectively, and their size and position affects the angles the legs move at, and particularly the way that the patella (kneecap) moves. Your anatomy and the patterns of your muscle use determine many of the injuries

. X-rays will show healing callus in an injury which is more than four weeks old, while doubters may respond to ultrasound testing by a physiotherapist – it causes real discomfort if positive!What else could it be?Few injuries show crescendo pain apart

.Medical investigations These are needed to eliminate other causes. If you’re old or have already suffered injury from contact sports, early osteo-arthritis may show up on an x-ray. Additionally, blood tests can reveal generalised diseases such as ankylosing spondylitis