The meniscus plays an important role in distributing your body weight evenly across the knee joint. The menisci are made of cartilage, and one meniscus lies on the inside of your knee (medial meniscus) and the other rests on the outside of your knee (lateral meniscus). It is quite easy to suffer a meniscus injury or meniscus tear during a fast-paced game of hockey.
“Meniscus injuries are very common with all sorts of knee injuries, especially with ACL and MCL injuries,” says Behnad Honarbakhsh, a physiotherapist and HealthChoicesFirst.com partner. “The meniscus is sort of a wedge-like, rubber-like piece of tissue that sits between your femur and tibia.”
Meniscus Injury Symptoms
Meniscus injuries often occur with compression and twisting, and this strains the tissue. If you suffer a meniscus injury or meniscus tear, it may feel like there's something in your knee, or something is catching when you walk. In hockey, meniscus injuries frequently come from contact at the outside of the leg, which affects the lateral meniscus. The meniscus can also be strained when a player catches their blade in the ice and the upper body twists but their skate doesn't.
“It can be quite painful, especially with weight bearing,” says Honarbakhsh. “The knee does tend to swell up if the injury is severe enough but sometimes you get a meniscus injury without any swelling.”
Treatment for a Meniscus Tear/Meniscus Injury
If you suspect that you've suffered a meniscus injury or meniscus tear, you should get to a qualified physiotherapist as soon as you can for an assessment to determine the severity and to make sure that it's not going to lead to other detrimental effects.
“That's also when we want to start rehab right away to make sure any predisposing factors that got you there are taken care of and also we return you back to good stability strength and balance in your extremity,” says Honarbakhsh.