Heel pain in a young adolescent baseball player

This case report describes a young adolescent baseball player with right heel pain.

An 11 year old male baseball player experiencing right medial calcaneal pain of several days duration. Running increased his pain and he had suffered mild pain in this area 1 year previously. He experienced tenderness to palpation over the right posterior-medial calcaneous and mild pain on toe walking.

The patient was treated with gentle mobilization to the ankle mortice, subtalar, and fore foot areas and electrical stimulation and ice to the calcaneal area. The patient was instructed in stretching of the Achilles tendon and plantar fascia and the use of ice application intermittently especially after aggravating activity.

The patient had right posterior medial heel pain that was aggravated by running and responded well to physical therapy modalities, stretching and mild modification of aggravating activity. This case illustrates that it is important to consider and recognize early calcaneal apophysitis in the adolescent and prompt conservative treatment generally produces excellent result.