If after a few days you cannot straighten your knee without pain then you cannot return to the playing field. After most mild knee injuries we are back on the field fairly quickly. Often times that might be some inflammation or swelling and is often due to some underlying osteoarthritis.ĭetermining if you have a severe knee injury is important. Less worrisome are people who simply woke up and now have pain trying to straighten the knee. It turns out that if you lose the ability to straighten the knee fully, or you can not straighten the knee without pain then the risk of having a serious injury increases.

There is a difference between someone with pain trying to straighten the knee, and someone who simply can’t straighten the knee because they feel like something is blocking their motion. How do you determine if you have a serious knee injury? If you hurt your knee twisting it, or if you were struck by someone else and you have pain trying to straighten it, you may have a serious knee injury. Also discussed below are the five most common problems that make it difficult to straighten your knee. The second is someone who injured themselves and can get the knee fully extended, and has severe pain and swelling when trying to straighten the knee.īelow we dive deeper into the causes of pain when trying to straighten your knee. One where you cannot straighten your knee because you feel that something is stuck inside the knee and blocking you. In general, as specialists, we look for two different situations. Pain when trying to straighten the knee is common. Those of you without a known injury, but with a history of knee osteoarthritis might also lose the ability to straighten your knee. After an injury, most of you will wonder if your damage is serious or perhaps just a simple knee strain. As an athlete, we learn to shake off many knee injuries.

Knee injuries often occur after a twisting injury or a direct contact injury. How do we tell whether your knee injury is mild or severe? In general, if you lose the ability to fully straighten your knee you may have a severe or serious knee injury and should see a doctor. Even mild injuries can result in loss of full motion and pain when trying to straighten your knee. Simply put, if you are unable to straighten your knee after an injury, you may have a severe knee injury.

I get on my knees, i get on my knees