Pulled Quad

Yep, 60 seconds into my soccer game on Sunday I was out with a pulled quad.  I'll take this opportunity to blame everyone else in the household for making me late to the game which then created a less than ideal warm up period, eventually leading to one sprint with cold muscles and a pulled quad. ;) Fantastic.  I left the field, got ice and Advil and then sat out until late in the 2nd half.  I felt bad for the other three women on the field who now had no sub, so I went in for 20 minutes or so but I had no ability to sprint or move my feet quickly.  I made a couple of decent passes, but other than that I was just a warm body that couldn't stop their offense.  Should I have gone back in the game? Definitely not, but like every other athlete I am stubborn.

After researching the injury it sounds like a 2nd degree strain, which means no running/lifting for me.  I'm taking 72 hours off completely and then hopefully doing a slow jog on Thursday, but that all depends on how I feel.  There is a 4 inch by 2 inch section of tight, swollen, and knotted muscle that needs to heal.  It's painful to the touch as well, so I've been icing it each night and keeping the Advil going.  My hope is that I can wrap it and play on Sunday, but we shall see.

And, no this is not an "I'm getting old" injury....it's a dumb one that could have been prevented.

Prognosis

Muscle pulls have varying degrees of damage and time necessary for recovery. The most serious quad strain results from a complete tear in the muscle and may require surgery and a recovery period of three months. A moderate level muscle strain involves partial muscle tearing and takes one to two months for recovery. The least severe muscle strain stretches muscle cells, causing microtears, but requires a shorter recovery period of 10 to 21 days.