I am having hip pain due to playing squash. Please advice.

Question

Hello doctor,

I used to have a long-term groin injury from playing badminton which caused jarring pain which ended up me having to stop for a while. I have not played badminton for four years so the groin injury subsided by whenever my groin is stretched it is always tender and has a lot less range of motion compared to the other side. I took up squash a year ago and have been playing at quite a good or intense level five times a week. In the last week, I have had quite a bad hip pain on the same side as my old groin injury. The groin injury has not come back (i.e. jarring, pain, etc.) since starting squash but it has still remained a bit tender when stretched with less range of motion than the other side. The hip pain has started getting bad at night three days ago and affecting my sleep so I have therefore stopped playing. I have been doing resistance band exercises I found online for adductors, abductors, etc., with stretching groin, hamstrings, etc., but has not got better (although it has only been three days). It is a dull ache for most of the day which only goes if I take Ibuprofen and does seem worse at night. The hip pain is fairly central but more on the outside.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to our portal.

I have understood your concern about groin pain. See you need to give sufficiently enough time for healing of adductor muscles tendons, which is getting worsened by repeatedly stretching. No doubt that you need more range of motion, but the first choice is to promote healing and decrease the pain, so for that, you need to take physiotherapy treatment, like ultrasound with ice and laser therapy, which helps in healing. then gradually after 20 days, you may start with exercises.

For more information consult a physiotherapist.