Clinical Cases: Anterior Shin Pain in a Female Marathon Running Athlete

In this episode of the How I Rehab Podcast, we sit down with sports podiatrist Blake Withers to work through a real clinical case: a 19-year-old marathon runner with anterior shin pain and eight weeks to go before race day. Blake Withers is a musculoskeletal podiatrist, University of Newcastle biomechanics lecturer, and PhD candidate researching running injury prevention. He also hosts The Sports Medicine Project podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/sports-medicine-project/id1608497693) and is a marathon runner himself. Together we work through the full clinical picture, history, red flags, imaging decisions and a week-by-week return-to-run plan covering: Training load and distribution as the biggest driver of bone stress injury How bone stress injury symptoms differ from tendinopathy Differential diagnoses for shin pain — and the one you can't afford to miss Why the anterior tibia is a high-risk site, and how to palpate it properly Imaging pathways: when to choose X-ray, MRI or CT MTSS ("shin splints") vs. bone stress injury — same spectrum, or separate conditions? The three phases of rehab: pain, capacity, and minimum effective dose Progressive reloading and unloading strategies by injury grade Running biomechanics, footwear and gait changes that offload the tibia Want to go deeper on bone stress injury assessment and reloading? Rich Willy, one of the world's leading voices on running injuries, breaks it down step by step in the Bone Stress Injury Reloaded Masterclass, now live on SportsMAP: https://sportsmap.com.au/course/bone-stress-injury-reloaded-the-lower-limb/ Get a free 7-day trial and unlock the entire SportsMAP masterclass library while you're there. Connect with Blake: Instagram: @blakesportspodiatrist Podcast: The Sports Medicine Project Join us at Fast Track the Injured Runner — our annual running injury conference in Melbourne this February. Full details at https://sportsmap.com.au/product/fast-track-the-injured-runner-2027/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4NL4Jjqf6M