Injury Treatment

Frequently, lower-leg pain in athletes is transitory and responds well to simple treatments -rest, icing, relaxed stretching of the lower-leg muscles, antiinflammatory medications, and compression and elevation if there is swelling. Usually, the pain gradually subsides, and an athlete is able to resume training within a few days. In other cases, however, the leg pain doesn’t diminish, or it may seem to disappear only to re-announce itself whenever significant amounts of training are attempted. These longer-lasting problems shouldn’t automatically be assumed to be shin splints. In fact, they are usually a result of one of three conditions – a ‘compartment syndrome,’ chronic tendonitis, or a stress fracture.