What I Treat · Exeter
Sports injury physio in Exeter
Treated with the same approach I use with professional footballers: accurate diagnosis, structured rehab, and a planned return to your sport, not an open-ended “rest it and see”.
£75 · 45 minutes · includes your first treatment
Understanding It
“Rest it” is not a plan
Sprains, strains, tendon problems, overload injuries: sport hands them out generously, and most get the same advice from well-meaning people: rest it. Rest settles symptoms, but it doesn't restore the strength, mobility or capacity the injury took away, which is why so many people return to sport and promptly break again.
This is the area I know best. At Exeter City FC my job is getting professional athletes from injury back to match fitness, and the process is the same whether the finish line is a league fixture, a parkrun or a CrossFit class: diagnose accurately, load progressively, return deliberately.
Common signs
- A sudden pull, pop or give during activity, followed by pain and swelling
- A niggle that started small and now shapes how you train
- Pain that eases as you warm up, then bites again afterwards
- An old injury that never quite feels trustworthy
- Recurring problems in the same spot: calf, hamstring, shoulder, Achilles, knee
How Physiotherapy Helps
Diagnose, rebuild, return
First, a proper diagnosis: which tissue, how irritable, and what stage it's at. That determines everything, including what you can safely keep doing, because keeping you training around an injury is almost always possible and almost always better.
Then rehab that actually progresses: hands-on treatment where it helps, and a loading plan that rebuilds the tissue's capacity step by step, measured against your sport's demands rather than a generic timeline. Finally, a return-to-sport plan with milestones, so you go back when you're ready rather than when you're bored.
One reviewer on this site had Achilles trouble for over a year before we worked together; she's back running now. Long-standing doesn't mean permanent.
While You Wait
What you can do today
For a fresh injury, protect it briefly, then reintroduce gentle movement as symptoms allow; complete immobilisation beyond the first days usually slows recovery. Ice can help with pain early on.
Don't retire from your sport in your head. Most injuries allow modified training, and staying active keeps the rest of you conditioned for the return.
Track the pattern: what provokes it, how long it grumbles afterwards. That history is genuinely useful at assessment.
Worth Knowing
When to get help
If an injury is changing how you train, or a niggle has outstayed two weeks, assessment now beats regret later; tendon problems in particular reward early attention.
Get same-day medical care for suspected fractures or dislocations, a joint that gave way with immediate swelling and can't take weight, or a total loss of function in the injured area.
Let's find out what's actually going on
A 45-minute assessment gets you a diagnosis in plain English, a clear plan, and your first treatment on the same day. No GP referral needed.