Peroneal tendonitis is an uncommon running injury, but can persist for a while when present. The peroneal muscles on the outside of the leg function to stabilise the foot on the ground and stop the foot from supinating or rolling out at the ankle joint. Peroneal tendonitis is more common in those with a foot that does supinate or has a higher arch profile. The symptoms tend to be in the tendons just about and/or just below the outer ankle bone (lateral malleolus). At first the symptoms are only present during running, but later progress to be present when walking as well and start to interfere with the running.
My Advice for peroneal tendonitis:
- Reduce running activities to a level that is tolerable and substitute other activities to maintain fitness
- Use ICE after running
- Use some sort of lateral build up in the running to pronate the foot more, so that the peroneal muscles do not have to work so hard, or see a health professional experienced I this to do it. This can be used long term or gradually reduced over time as the tissues adapt.