I got this “painful” message from a reader of the column who wants to know what to do next:

Paul – I was doing the Tees Pride 10K run on Sunday morning just gone when suddenly my calf popped, and it felt like I’d been “shot”. There was no prior warning or stiffness. I hobbled though the last 2.5K and still managed a PB of 47:43. Can you advise the best course of treatment?

Nick, 41, Hartlepool

LET me talk you through this injury and I’ll do it in the context of explaining how and why it happened so that you can try and avoid it in the future.

The feeling like you’ve been “shot” in the back of the leg is something I hear a lot, and it’s the big give away that the person has pulled a calf muscle quite badly.

A lot like hamstring muscles, calves tear or snap with very little warning and will often happen as a result of being over worked, dehydrated or from running up and down a route which includes several inclines.

I note Nick’s age, too. Forty one is ripe old age to start suffering these sort of ‘out of the blue’ problems, and I’d bet even without seeing Nick that in the past he has had some kind of problem with a stiff or aching Achilles tendon.

Maybe not enough to cause any concern or even limit exercise, but some signs such as feeling extra tight on a morning or late at night, suggest something isn’t quite right.

The Achilles and calf are connected, so if one of them tightens, so too does the other. And if you keep pulling at one of those muscles eventually it will tighten to the point that it is forced to snap. That’s what happens when the muscle snap occurs. The reality is, the muscle has torn.

I’ve written about ankle and foot injuries a few times recently, and I’ve done so on purpose because it’s around this time of year that I see most of them due to the extra running people do in summer on the hard surfaces combining to add extra stress and tension to your Achilles and calf muscles.

So - what do you do about it? Well, ice is a good place to start. For the first three days I’d recommend you apply ice to the area and rest. That means no running and limit walking. Go swimming if you want to keep active.

After that it’s important to get lots of deep tissue massage to stop something called scar tissue. If you don’t, it makes it more likely that you’ll tear the same muscles again because scar tissue is very tight and inflexible.

Controlled stretching routines are important around 7-10 days after and from then on it is more massage, more stretching and after about 14 days or so, start to strengthen the calf muscle.

My big tip for this: Do not rush back. Rarely will a true calf strain heal safely any quicker than 3-4 weeks.

If you want to know more about the exact steps you need to take, visit paulgoughphysio.com/sports-injury-clinic. There is a free report waiting for you with all my best tips on how to get fit quickly after suffering any of the common sports or muscle injuries.