Mechanism of injury, bruising, speed of swelling, function and your aspirations as a footballer or cricketer are all important here.
Depending on how important your sport is to you, I would get the opinion of a doctor that has an interest in sports injuries or a good physio. What may be considered minor injury to a casual or infrequent player can be serious to others more invested in their sport.
Certainly a contact injury increases risk of significant internal derangement of the knee, but a twisting or sudden stopping non-contact injury can also cause meniscal or cruciate ligament injuries, which may remain on the radar given your reported speed of swelling and bruising. Other meniscal signs including clicking, blocking (so only straightens or bends so far then stops), locking (gets stuck in a position), or recurrent swelling after exercise when you return to activity. Bear in mind also these things come in degrees and you're not forced to have full thickness injuries straight away, but they could become that way if you rush it. In the first two weeks after injury you are very prone to further more serious injury without the proper support, physio and rest. It is unlikely that you have a ruptured Baker's cyst as you look too young and your knees in too good condition. Pain in your calf should not effect your ability to flex and extend your knee, which is achieved through the hamstrings. Your calf controls your ankle movements. Having said all of this, looking at your photos, in absence of a sudden trauma or having to leave the field through immobility and pain, then I would consider a partial hamstring tear (confirmed on ultrasound) - feel up and down the hamstrings and tendons as they insert behind your knee and into the top of your tibia (the bleeding/ bruising will follow gravity to an extent so you can expect pain and swelling to spread to the calf). That's the good news, and the most likely. Once that is excluded you should be getting specialist opinions if you're young and value your sport. You dont want an internal knee injury going undiagnosed, though this does seem less likely as the swelling would be noticeable at the front of the knee as well as the back and for the bruising to appear you would have to have ruptured the joint capsule also - possible but would stop most in their tracks immediately. Rest Ice Compression Elevation only goes so far. Play it safe. Seek more help. Good luck.
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Topic: Injury diagnosis? (with pics) (Read 2594 times)