Leg Going Numb

by Bill
(Texas)

I am a HS CC coach and I have my softball pitcher running for me for conditioning. Last March during the softball season she suffered a pretty severe pulled/torn muscle in her thigh. She rested, played with it wrapped etc. and finished the season doing real well.

Now about three weeks into the CC season she is complaining that the leg she had the thigh injury in last Spring goes numb about 1 to 1.5 miles into her workout. I have her stretch real well before she runs and tell her to stretch and ice after she runs. I am at a loss as to what to do. She has a couple more meets but I do not want to keep running her if there is a chance of injuring her severely and keeping her from training this fall for her primary sport - softball. Wednesday we were going to try wrapping it before her workout.

Is the area that was previously injured swelling a bit during the running and then restricting blood flow to the rest of the leg? Any advice?


Answer by Dominique:


Hi Bill,
Thanks for your running question.
It is tough to answer this question.
Given the injury happened in the thigh area I assume the numbness is in the thigh as well?
That could then lead me to believe there is some irritated nerve in the thigh that causes the numbness.

As you point out, there may be some swelling (maybe not even visible on the surface) that causes this, but you'd expect this not to happen given that what you describe she went through is a full recovery...

Another reason could be that she may be going through some growing issues. When I was a teenager and had a growth spurt I remember I had quite a few lower back pains which pushed through all the way to the thighs as well.

I would have this checked out by a doctor to make sure that she doesn't have any lasting damage due to previous season's injury.


Hope this helps a bit.
Best of luck.
Cheers,
Dominique