Corked calf

[blues4flag]

Last Saturday I was playing footy and got a cork to the calf (tackled a guy and his knee fell into my calf). Tried playing out the game but couldn't get back out after q1. Iced it.

Thinking it was nothing more than a calf, I didn't seek any further treatment. I was hopping about the day after then limping on the ball of my foot for almost a week.

About 10 days on and it's still hurting. The swelling's gone down but it's still pretty tender and I can't fully extend my calf. Instead of walking on the ball of my foot any longer I decided to get crutches.

Is a severe corky something to go see a doctor/physio over or will it just heal itself? How long till I'm able to walk (play) again?

 

[TruBlues]

A corky is basically bleeding within the muscle that occurs as a result of the trauma from the knee to the calf muscle. Depending on how severe the bleeding is will detemine how long it will take for your recovery. Sometimes you can develop a condition known as myositis ossificans which is basically where the part of the muscle that was injured calcifies. This usually occurs if there is extensive bleeding and tissue damage within the muscle and if it occurs recovery can be quite slow. It is usually diagnosed with an x-ray so I would suggest if you are still worried about the problem in a week go and get it checked out.

In the mean time I would suggest some very light soft-tissue massage and stretching of the calf muscle to promote resorption of the blood clot. Also try and avoid heat, alcohol and vigorous massage.

Hope this advice helps.

 

[soph9]

I copped a corky today and played on the last 5 minutes hobbling around in pain, but a couple of hours later and I can't walk properly, or stretch it out and it's hell sore.
I rubbed a bit of Deep Heat into it but I have another game tomorrow I need to play in so is something like putting ice on it etc going to have an impact by tomorrow? Should I be walking (well, limping) on it?

 

[cptkirk]

a bit late now bit o think you would have struggled to get up for the game today

did you?

 

[soph9]

It's sore but I still played, the deep heat did wonders - i massaged it in every 3 or so hours up until the game - I could basically get my heel on the ground in a calf stretch by then which was a major improvement.
But I got someone's studs into my knee and now I have really sore shooting pains through my knee which seems to have made the corky pain insignificant...
If there's ever one sure fire way to make something stop hurting - it's to have somewhere else hurt haha