Thigh muscle injured, odd feeling when stretching. Help?

Question

Hello doctor,

I am a 22-year-old male. I played soccer throughout my teens competitively. Five years ago, I injured the muscle in my thigh, what I presume was a tear of which I sat out from sports for a week or two, however, was rushed back into playing by my mother who thought I was faking the injury. I injured the muscle again, and these proceeded to happen again, leading me to quit sports and focus on going to studies the following year.

Currently, whenever I stretch my thigh muscle by pulling my leg up behind me, I get a slightly uncomfortable feeling in my thigh muscle which I know is not normal, however, it is not painful enough to tell me to stop doing it. Furthermore, I have been in the gym and jogging where my muscle seems to be fine, but when I decide to sprint there is a 50 percent chance that I will get into discomfort again. However, it does not feel like a tear, but it will become numb for a few days and finally, if I go to kick a ball it is almost certain that the same result from sprinting will happen.

I have recently started to stretch the muscle to try and see if I can regain its strength to allow me to do these few things again without worrying about hurting my muscles again. I am not sure what other things I can do to help this, such as different types of stretches, etc.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I read your concern. In my opinion, you had a tear in your quadriceps muscle which has not healed properly and got reinjured again within less time. So there is a possibility that a scar formed on the torn area of the muscle leading to stiffness and numbness is due to any neural stiffness around the scar area. Possibly there will be nerve entrapment. Do not worry.

All you have to do is:

1. Get a deep friction massage to relieve the tension in the muscle.

2. Slowly release the scar by massaging the scar frequently.

3. Gently stretch the muscle and hold it.

4. Keep icing that area frequently.

Before attempting any running or any strenuous activity, I advise you to properly activate and then strengthen that muscle. Progressively increase the load on the muscle.

I hope this helps.