Part of Patellar tendinopathy
Jumper's knee or Osgood-Schlatter in a teenager: telling them apart
Warning signs, and when to get help
Jumper's knee or Osgood-Schlatter in a teenager?
One finger settles most of this, and the two spots are about an inch or two apart.
Osgood-Schlatter disease is pain and tenderness at the tibial tubercle, which the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons describes as the bony bump where the kneecap tendon attaches to the shinbone. You can usually see it as well as feel it. Jumper's knee in an adult sits higher, at the bottom tip of the kneecap, where the tendon leaves the bone. Malliaras and colleagues (2015) give the two hallmarks of that condition as pain localized to the inferior pole of the patella and pain that increases with the demand on the thigh muscles, particularly in activities that store and release energy in the tendon.
In a teenager who is still growing, though, pain at that lower tip of the kneecap is usually not the adult condition at all. It is more often Sinding-Larsen-Johansson disease, which is the same kind of traction problem at the kneecap end of the tendon. That is the third name in this comparison, and the one most families have never heard.
This page is about telling them apart. It is not a treatment plan for any of them: our Osgood-Schlatter disease page carries the staged program for that condition, and the adult patellar tendinopathy program is written for grown tendons and is not the right starting point for a growing knee.
Put one finger on it
Not if the pain started in one moment. If it arrived with a pop or a snap during a jump, a landing or a sprint, do not go looking for the sore spot at all. That knee needs a doctor the same day, and an emergency department straight away if your child cannot straighten it, cannot lift the leg out straight, cannot put weight on it, or it swelled up quickly. The warning list at the foot of this page gives both routes in full.
For pain that has come on gradually, do this sitting down, with the knee bent to about a right angle, and use one fingertip rather than a whole hand. Do it once, note the answer, and leave the knee alone after that. Testing a sore knee every evening tells you nothing new and makes a child dread being asked.
Start at the bottom edge of the kneecap and press gently. That lower tip is the Sinding-Larsen-Johansson and jumper's knee spot. Then slide the finger downward. You will cross a soft stretch of tendon, which is usually comfortable, and then arrive at a firm bony bump on the front of the shin.
That bump is the tibial tubercle and the Osgood-Schlatter spot. In many teenagers with it, the bump stands out more on the sore side and is tender to the lightest press, sometimes so much that a school desk or a football against it is enough.
One finger matters because a hand covers all three places at once. Ask your child to point with a fingertip rather than to rub the area, and note which single spot makes them flinch. Where jumper's knee hurts goes through the same exercise for an adult knee and names the other problems that live in the area. If they point to the soft tendon in between, or to a wide area around and behind the kneecap, that is a different picture again, and patellofemoral pain is the condition that pattern usually belongs to. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons draws the same line in its adolescent anterior knee pain material, describing that condition as pain in the front and center of the knee, usually underneath the kneecap, and noting that pain in the upper shinbone area just below the kneecap is a different condition.
The third one: Sinding-Larsen-Johansson
Learn the name, because it is the most likely explanation for a growing teenager with pain at the lower tip of the kneecap.
A scoping review by Wilczynski and colleagues (2024) reports that it mainly affects physically active adolescents aged 9 to 17 years, that ultrasound and MRI are the most useful imaging when imaging is needed, and that treatment centered mainly on limiting the aggravating activity brings positive outcomes within two to eight months. The same review is candid about the evidence: it is drawn mostly from case studies and the data are limited and often conflicting.
Why the growth area rather than the tendon? Because in a knee that is still growing, both ends of this tendon attach to a growth center, and the growth plate is the weakest link in that chain: a review of apophyseal injuries in young athletes describes it as weaker than the fibrous structures attached to it and more vulnerable to injury, so a pull that would strain a grown tendon tends to damage the growth area instead (Sato and colleagues, 2025). Dalla Rosa Nogales and Nogales Zafra (2019), writing about the shin end, make the mechanical point explicitly: the columnar cells of a growth area are structurally weak and cannot withstand tensile forces, which is their explanation for why bone pulls away there in adolescents. The practical version for a parent is simpler. The tendon pulls hard on a part of the skeleton that has not finished turning into bone, and that is what hurts.
One thing separates all of this from the injuries on the warning list. These conditions come on gradually, over weeks of running, jumping and landing. Pain that arrived in a single moment, with a pop or a snap, is a different event, because growing bone can be pulled away at either end of this tendon, and that is not something to watch for a week.
What age does each one turn up?
The ages overlap, so age narrows the field rather than deciding it.
Osgood-Schlatter has a well documented peak in boys aged 12 to 15, and Ladenhauf and colleagues (2020) note there now seems to be no difference in sex distribution, which they suggest follows from more girls playing high impact sport. Sinding-Larsen-Johansson is reported in physically active adolescents aged 9 to 17 (Wilczynski and colleagues, 2024). Patellar tendon related pain in this age group, taken as a whole, appears to begin in childhood and to become more common through adolescence up to age 18 (Cairns and colleagues, 2018).
Adult jumper's knee is described in grown jumping athletes, and the figures most often quoted for how common it is come from national level elite athletes in Norway, where current jumper's knee was found in 14.2 percent overall, 44.6 percent in volleyball and 31.9 percent in basketball, with no cases in road cycling or orienteering (Lian and colleagues, 2005). Those are elite competitors and the numbers do not describe a teenager at a local club.
So a sore bump at 13 in a basketball season is a very different prior than the same complaint at 25, and that is as far as age can take you. The tender spot still decides it.
Does a teenager need an X-ray?
Not to make the diagnosis, and the full sentence from the guidance is worth having, because half of it is usually left out.
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons puts the diagnosis of Osgood-Schlatter disease in the doctor's hands, from the history and the examination, and says an X-ray is not needed to reach it. It adds the other half, which matters just as much: an X-ray is for the visit where the doctor has other concerns about the knee.
The first part protects your child from unnecessary imaging and saves you from feeling you must insist on it. The second part is the half that protects a different child entirely: the one whose story does not fit. Pain that wakes a child at night, pain at rest that keeps getting worse, knee pain that is there all the time rather than arriving with running and jumping, a lump that keeps growing, a new limp, a fever, or a pop at the bump or the kneecap tip during a landing. Every one of those has its own line on the warning list at the foot of this page, with a timescale, and several of them need a doctor within a day or two rather than at the next convenient appointment.
A doctor who examines the knee and does not order an X-ray is following the guidance. A doctor who orders one because something in the history concerns them is following the same guidance. Both are correct, and the difference between them is the history you give.
What the treatment has in common
Enough that an exact label matters less than parents fear, which is the reassuring part of all this.
For both growth area conditions the core is load modification, with a return to sport guided by symptoms rather than by a calendar (Cairns and colleagues, 2018). For the adult tendon the core is staged loading, built up over months. In all of them the thing that changes is how much jumping, sprinting and landing the knee is being asked to absorb each week, and in all of them the quadriceps and hip work that goes alongside starts gently and gets harder.
That is why a program for one of these usually looks recognizable to someone who has done a program for another. Held positions such as a wall sit or a squat hold tend to come early, with standing strength work after them, and the jumping work last. What differs is the level a growing knee starts at and how quickly it progresses, which is why that is a decision for a clinician who has examined your child rather than something to pick from a page. No dose is given here for that reason.
If your child's pain is at the back of the heel rather than the knee, Sever's disease is the same traction story at the other end of the leg, and the handling is much the same. A strap worn below the kneecap comes up often as an extra, and do patellar tendon straps and braces help jumper's knee sets out what the evidence for one actually supports in a growing knee.
What the evidence does not support
Three things are worth knowing before anyone suggests them, because this is an area where confident advice outruns the research.
There is no evidence supporting specific types of exercise for children and adolescents with Osgood-Schlatter or patellar tendinopathy, which is the conclusion Cairns and colleagues (2018) reached after rating every included study at high risk of bias. The honest reading is that load modification and a symptom guided return to sport are what the review recommends, and that anyone promising a particular exercise is the key is going beyond the evidence.
Surgery for Osgood-Schlatter does not have evidence behind it. The same review found none that justified it, and reported a study in which surgery gave no benefit over conservative management for persistent symptoms and carried a higher complication rate. Ladenhauf and colleagues (2020) place operative treatment only where disabling symptoms persist after the growth plate has closed, with conservative management succeeding in over 90 percent.
The injection evidence is weak rather than absent, and it is weak in one specific form that is not the injection most people have in mind. Cairns and colleagues found weak evidence for dextrose injection with local anesthetic, in studies at high risk of bias. That is not a recommendation, and it is not a reason to ask for an injection.
How long does each one last?
Months, usually, and for Osgood-Schlatter the end point tends to be growth rather than treatment.
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons says most symptoms disappear completely when a child completes the adolescent growth spurt, around age 14 for girls and age 16 for boys, and that pain may continue at some level until the growth plate closes. That is a reassuring overall picture and it is not everyone's experience, which our Osgood-Schlatter disease page covers with the follow-up numbers.
Sinding-Larsen-Johansson was reported as improving within two to eight months with treatment focused on limiting activity, in a review that described its own evidence base as limited and often conflicting (Wilczynski and colleagues, 2024).
Adult jumper's knee is the slowest of the three. In the trial behind the adult program, 76 adults followed a loading program for 24 weeks, and 43 percent of the better performing group were back at their pre-injury level of sport by the end of it (Breda and colleagues, 2021). That is one more reason not to hand a growing teenager the adult page and its timescales.
Can a teenager keep playing?
Usually yes, with the amount adjusted, and there is one clear exception.
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons is direct about Osgood-Schlatter: it is important to know that continued participation in activity will not cause long-term damage to the knee, and it is safe for children to participate in activities as tolerated. It adds that a child who is limping or has a lot of pain even at rest may need to cut back for a short time.
The exception is a new limp, and it is not a small print exception. A limp that has just appeared in a growing child is also the presenting sign of other problems, including a slipped growth plate at the top of the thigh bone, which is felt in the knee. That is why a new limp has a same-day line on the warning list below and is not covered by the reassurance above.
Practically, this means the useful conversation with a coach is about volume rather than permission. Which drills bring the pain on, how much jumping the knee is managing this week, and an agreement that your child can stop a drill without negotiating in front of the squad. If running is the main trigger, knee pain after running and our page on beginner running injuries cover the load side of it.
The bump that stays
Parents ask this often and the answer is usually not what they hope.
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons notes that the prominence of the tubercle will persist and may increase in size until the child is finished growing. So the bump tends to be permanent even after the pain has gone, and a bump getting bigger during the growing years is not in itself a sign that things are getting worse. Does jumper's knee affect a teenager's growth deals with the question that usually follows, which is whether any of this changes how tall a child ends up.
What is a different matter is a lump you cannot account for. A swelling around the knee or thigh that keeps growing and is not that hard bump just below the kneecap needs a doctor within a day or two, and that line is on the warning list below in full, along with the signs that go with it. The distinction is worth holding on to: the familiar bony bump at the shin, slowly more prominent, is expected. Anything soft, new, elsewhere, or growing quickly is not.
Red flags in a growing knee
Read the list at the foot of this page properly. It is the part that actually changes what happens.
Four groups matter most in a growing knee. The first is a pop, snap or single moment of severe pain at the bump or at the bottom tip of the kneecap during a jump, landing or sprint, which can be a break where growing bone pulls away at either end of the tendon, and which goes to an emergency department if your child cannot straighten the knee, lift the leg straight or bear weight, or if the knee swells quickly. If they felt the pop but can still straighten the knee and walk on it, that is a doctor the same day rather than a wait, because the smaller version of the same break does not always stop a child walking. The second is a new limp, or hip, groin or thigh pain alongside the knee pain, which needs a doctor the same day.
The third is pain that wakes your child at night, pain at rest that keeps getting worse, or knee pain that is there all the time rather than coming with running, jumping and playing. That needs a doctor within a day or two, their cancer team the same day if your child is being treated for cancer now, and emergency services or an emergency department if there is also a rash that does not fade when you press it. The fourth is a hot, red, swollen knee, or knee pain with a fever, which needs advice the same day.
The night pain and growing lump lines cut straight across the reassurance above, and that is deliberate. Osgood-Schlatter and its two relatives are activity related: they hurt when the knee is used and settle when it is rested. Pain that behaves differently, waking a child, present at rest, getting worse week by week, is not following that pattern, and it needs looking at even though the common explanation is harmless.
When to see a physio or a doctor
Have a growing knee examined before you start anything, including anything on this website. That is the single most useful thing a parent can do.
An examination usually settles which of the three conditions it is in one appointment, and it does something a page cannot: it checks the hip, the back and the rest of the leg, and it takes a history that would pick up the problems the warning list is written for. The NHS advises seeing a GP if knee pain does not improve within a few weeks, and in many places physiotherapy can be reached without a referral.
If none of the warning signs below applies, there is one thing worth doing while you wait for that appointment, and it is not an exercise. Cut back the sessions and drills that bring the pain on, keep the ones that do not, and judge the week by how the knee feels the next morning rather than by how it felt during the game. Load modification and a symptom guided return to sport are what the evidence in this age group supports (Cairns and colleagues, 2018), and our pain monitoring model guide sets out that next morning check. Strength work waits until somebody has examined the knee and set the starting level, which is why no sets or repetitions appear anywhere on this page.
Go sooner than that for any of the warning signs below, within the time each one gives. If your child has had an operation on this knee, or a break where growing bone pulled away at the shin or at the kneecap, follow the plan their surgical team gave you and ask them before starting anything new. How long a child stays in a cast or a brace, how much weight the leg may take, and how far the knee may bend each week are set by the team that treated the injury, they differ between injuries and between surgeons, and nothing on this page replaces the reviews they have booked. Those reviews are also looking for something a page cannot see: after a tubercle fracture has been fixed, the growth area itself can occasionally be disturbed, and that shows up as a change in the shape of the knee rather than in how tall your child ends up (Bailey and colleagues, 2020). Nothing here is a diagnosis or personal advice for your child: it is how these conditions are told apart, and which parts of the picture should not wait.
Related exercise programs
Warning signs
Get emergency help now
- A sudden sharp pain, pop or snap at the bottom tip of the kneecap or below it while jumping, landing or sprinting, and then your child cannot straighten the knee, lift the leg out straight or put weight on it, or the knee swells quickly. Keep the weight off the leg and go to an emergency department straight away. This can be a break where the bump at the top of the shin pulls away (tibial tubercle avulsion fracture), which is treated in hospital and is often fixed with an operation. In a growing knee the same kind of injury can happen at the other end of the tendon, where cartilage and bone pull away from the bottom of the kneecap (patellar sleeve fracture), and that one can look almost normal on a first X-ray, so a child who still cannot straighten the knee afterwards needs to be seen again. Both are rare, and a history of Osgood-Schlatter disease may make the shin one more likely.
- Emergency: in the hours or days after an injury to the bump below the kneecap, or after an operation on it, your child has sudden severe pain in the lower leg that is much worse than you would expect, especially with a bandage, a cast or a brace on. It may come with a tight, swollen leg, pain that gets worse when the muscle is stretched, numbness, pins and needles or weakness. Call emergency services or go to an emergency department straight away. Do not prop the leg higher than your child's hip and do not put ice on it. This can be acute compartment syndrome, which needs urgent surgery.
- Emergency: while your child is in a cast, a splint or a knee brace, their toes turn blue, white or pale, or feel cold. Do not wait to see if raising the leg helps. Go to an emergency department straight away. The cast, splint or brace may be cutting off the blood supply, or pressure may be building up inside the leg (compartment syndrome), and both need checking quickly.
- The kneecap has slipped out of place, even if it went back by itself. If it is still out of place, go to an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself. If it went back by itself, get medical advice the same day.
- Pain that wakes your child at night, pain at rest that keeps getting worse, knee pain that is there all the time rather than coming with running, jumping and playing, or a lump or swelling around the knee or thigh that keeps growing and is not the hard bump just below the kneecap. If your child also has a rash that does not fade when you press it, call emergency services or go to an emergency department.
Get help now, day or night
- While your child is in a cast, a splint or a knee brace, the pain is getting worse or the cast, splint or brace feels too tight, or their toes feel numb, tingle, burn or sting or look more swollen. Contact the team that fitted it straight away, whatever the time, and take your child to an urgent care center or emergency department if you cannot reach them. If it is a brace or a splint with straps, loosen the straps but keep it on. Do not prop the leg higher than your child's hip and do not put ice on it, because if pressure is building up inside the lower leg both of those cut down the blood reaching the lower leg and foot. If your child cannot move their toes on their own, the pain is severe even after painkillers, or the numbness, tingling, burning or swelling has not settled within 30 minutes, take them straight to an emergency department instead of waiting to reach anyone. Swelling under a cast, a splint or a brace can press on the nerves and on the blood supply (OrthoInfo, Care of Casts and Splints).
Get help today
- Same day: your child or teenager is still growing and has a limp, or pain in the hip, groin or thigh as well as the knee. Get an urgent appointment with a doctor the same day, and keep them off sport and these exercises until they have been checked. If they cannot put weight on the leg, have a high temperature or feel very unwell, go to an emergency department. Some hip problems in growing children and teenagers, such as a slipped growth plate at the top of the thigh bone (slipped capital femoral epiphysis), are felt in the knee and need checking quickly.
- Same day: your child felt a pop, a snap or one moment of severe pain at the bump, or at the bottom tip of the kneecap, while jumping, landing or sprinting, but can still straighten the knee and walk on it. Get medical advice the same day, and keep them off sport and these exercises until the knee has been checked. A smaller version of the same break, at the top of the shin or at the bottom of the kneecap, does not always stop a child walking, so a pop that settles into soreness is still worth a doctor looking at that day. If the knee swells up within a few hours, or your child stops being able to straighten it fully or to put weight on it, do not wait for that appointment: go to an emergency department. A first X-ray that looks normal does not rule this out, so if your child still cannot fully straighten the knee afterwards, go back and say so.
- The pain started with a fall, a twist or a blow to the knee, or you cannot put weight on the leg. Get medical advice the same day. If the knee has changed shape, swelled up very quickly or you felt a pop or snap, or your foot turns cold, pale or blue or you have tingling or no feeling in the leg or foot, go to an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself.
- The knee is hot, red and swollen, or you have knee pain with a high temperature or feel hot, cold or shivery. Get medical advice the same day, and go to an emergency department if you feel very unwell. This can be a sign of infection in the joint, which needs treatment quickly. In a child, bone pain with a fever can be a bone infection, which needs treatment quickly. If you have a very high or very low temperature, shivering you cannot control, you are breathing very fast or finding it hard to breathe, you are confused or your speech is slurred, your skin, lips or tongue look blue, gray, pale or blotchy (on brown or black skin this can be easier to see on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet), or you have a rash that does not fade when you press it, call emergency services, as this can be sepsis.
- The knee locks and you cannot straighten it, or it keeps giving way under you. Get medical advice the same day, and keep off sport and these exercises until the knee has been checked. Hold the rail on stairs and take care on uneven ground until then. Giving way is not part of Osgood-Schlatter disease, and a knee that gives way without warning is how people fall.
- The knee swells up with no clear reason, especially if you take medicine to thin your blood. Get medical advice the same day.
- Pain that wakes your child at night, pain at rest that keeps getting worse, knee pain that is there all the time rather than coming with running, jumping and playing, or a lump or swelling around the knee or thigh that keeps growing and is not the hard bump just below the kneecap. If your child is being treated for cancer now, contact their cancer team the same day.
- Same day: a new mark, blister or sore on your child's skin where the cast, splint or brace sits, skin around it that turns red or raw, a brace that rubs or slips, or a cast that cracks, goes soft or gets wet. Get it looked at by the team that fitted it the same day, and do not pad it, line it or trim it yourself.
- Same day: your child has had an operation on this knee, or is in a cast, a splint or a brace after one, and now has a high temperature or feels hot, cold or shivery, the pain under the cast or dressing is getting worse rather than settling, or the cast, splint or dressing becomes stained, damp with fluid or smells unpleasant. Contact their surgical team or fracture clinic the same day, and get urgent medical advice if you cannot reach them. A cast hides the wound, so a fever, pain that is climbing again, or a stain or a smell may be the only sign of an infection around the repair. If your child is very unwell, go to an emergency department.
Book an appointment
- Pain that wakes your child at night, pain at rest that keeps getting worse, knee pain that is there all the time rather than coming with running, jumping and playing, or a lump or swelling around the knee or thigh that keeps growing and is not the hard bump just below the kneecap. See a doctor within a day or two. Ask for an urgent appointment rather than the next routine one, and say what the pain does at night and whether a lump is getting bigger. Do the same if the pain comes with looking pale, unusual tiredness, fevers with no clear cause, bruising or bleeding easily, or weight loss. Bone pain that is worse at night, or a new lump, needs checking to rule out rarer causes such as a bone tumor or a blood cancer (leukemia).
- Your child's knee stays swollen, or they also have swollen, warm or painful joints elsewhere, joint stiffness that is worst in the morning, or back pain. This is not an emergency, but see a doctor in the next week or two, as it can be a sign of arthritis in children (juvenile arthritis), which is best treated early. If your child also has a red, painful eye, get it checked the same day. If light hurts the eye, the eye turns very dark red, their sight changes, or they also have a severe headache and feel sick, go to an emergency department or emergency eye service straight away. Arthritis in children can also inflame the inside of the eye (uveitis), which can harm sight if it is not treated.
Common questions
Is jumper's knee the same as Osgood-Schlatter?
No, although they sit at opposite ends of the same tendon and hurt during the same activities. Osgood-Schlatter disease is a traction apophysitis of the tibial tubercle, the growth area at the bony bump on the shin where the kneecap tendon attaches (Ladenhauf and colleagues, 2020). Jumper's knee is pain in the tendon itself at the bottom tip of the kneecap, and the two hallmarks in an adult are pain localized to that lower tip and pain that rises with the demand on the thigh muscles (Malliaras and colleagues, 2015). In a teenager who is still growing, pain at the lower tip of the kneecap is more often Sinding-Larsen-Johansson disease, which is the same traction problem at the kneecap end. The practical difference for a parent is where it is tender, not how it feels.
Can you have Osgood-Schlatter and patellar tendonitis together?
Yes, and in a growing athlete it is not unusual for more than one spot on the same tendon to be sore. A systematic review of treatments in children and adolescents groups these as patellar tendon related pain for exactly that reason, and notes that these conditions appear to begin in childhood and increase in prevalence during adolescence up to age 18 (Cairns and colleagues, 2018). Two sore spots do not make the problem twice as serious, and they do not change the first step, which is having the knee examined so that the tender points are mapped properly. They do usually mean the training load is the thing to look at rather than any one structure.
Does Osgood-Schlatter need an X-ray?
Not to make the diagnosis. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons puts the diagnosis in the doctor's hands, from the history and the examination, and says an X-ray is not needed to reach it. It adds the other half: an X-ray is for the visit where the doctor has other concerns about the knee. Both halves of that matter. The first half means a parent does not need to push for imaging to be taken seriously. The second half is the reason imaging stays available for the child whose story does not fit, which is the child whose pain wakes them at night, who has a lump that keeps growing, who is limping, or who felt something pop at the bump or at the tip of the kneecap. Those are on the warning list at the foot of this page with how quickly each needs seeing.
How long does Osgood-Schlatter last?
Months to a few years, and it usually ends with growth. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons says most symptoms disappear completely when a child completes the adolescent growth spurt, around age 14 for girls and age 16 for boys, and that the pain may continue at some level until the growth plate closes. Conservative management succeeds in over 90 percent of patients, and surgery is considered only where disabling symptoms persist after the growth plate has closed (Ladenhauf and colleagues, 2020). Our Osgood-Schlatter disease page carries the follow-up figures, including what happens to the minority who still have pain two years on. For Sinding-Larsen-Johansson, a scoping review reported positive outcomes within two to eight months with treatment centered on limiting the aggravating activity, while cautioning that the evidence is mostly case studies and is limited and often conflicting (Wilczynski and colleagues, 2024).
References
- American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Osgood-Schlatter Disease (Knee Pain). OrthoInfo. https://www.orthoinfo.org/en/diseases--conditions/osgood-schlatter-disease-knee-pain/
- American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Adolescent Anterior Knee Pain. OrthoInfo. https://www.orthoinfo.org/en/diseases--conditions/adolescent-anterior-knee-pain/
- Ladenhauf HN, Seitlinger G, Green DW. Osgood-Schlatter disease: a 2020 update of a common knee condition in children. Current Opinion in Pediatrics. 2020;32(1):107-112. https://doi.org/10.1097/MOP.0000000000000842
- Wilczynski B, Taraszkiewicz M, de Tillier K, Bialy M, Zorena K. Sinding-Larsen-Johansson disease. Clinical features, imaging findings, conservative treatments and research perspectives: a scoping review. PeerJ. 2024;12:e17996. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17996
- Cairns G, Owen T, Kluzek S, Thurley N, Holden S, Rathleff MS, Dean BJF. Therapeutic interventions in children and adolescents with patellar tendon related pain: a systematic review. BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine. 2018;4(1):e000383. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2018-000383
- Malliaras P, Cook J, Purdam C, Rio E. Patellar Tendinopathy: Clinical Diagnosis, Load Management, and Advice for Challenging Case Presentations. Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy. 2015;45(11):887-898. https://doi.org/10.2519/jospt.2015.5987
- Breda SJ, Oei EHG, Zwerver J, Visser E, Waarsing E, Krestin GP, de Vos RJ. Effectiveness of progressive tendon-loading exercise therapy in patients with patellar tendinopathy: a randomised clinical trial. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2021;55(9):501-509. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2020-103403
- Dalla Rosa Nogales J, Nogales Zafra JJ. Bilateral Simultaneous Tibial Tubercle Avulsion in an Adolescent Football Player with Previous Bilateral Osgood-Schlatter Disease. Case Reports in Orthopedics. 2019;2019:8535370. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/8535370
- Bailey MEA, Wei R, Bolton S, Richards RH. Paediatric injuries around the knee: Bony injuries. Injury. 2020;51(3):611-619. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.12.033
- Boushnak MO, Moussa MK, Abed Ali AA, Mohsen ZH, Chamseddine A. Patellar Sleeve Fracture in an Eight-Year-Old Girl. Cureus. 2020;12(9):e10345. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.10345
- Sato VN, Moriwaki TL, Ikawa MH, Sugawara LM, da Rocha Correa Fernandes A, Skaf AY, Yamada AF. Apophyseal injuries in soccer players. Skeletal Radiology. 2025;54(4):715-729. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-023-04542-x
- Lian OB, Engebretsen L, Bahr R. Prevalence of jumper's knee among elite athletes from different sports: a cross-sectional study. American Journal of Sports Medicine. 2005;33(4):561-567. https://doi.org/10.1177/0363546504270454
- NHS. Knee pain. Page last reviewed 21 December 2023. https://www.nhs.uk/symptoms/knee-pain/
Written and checked by the PocketPhysio editorial team. Last updated 2026-10-21.
This page is general education, not a diagnosis or a personal treatment plan. See a physiotherapist or doctor for advice about your own situation.