It usually starts the same way. Your child limps off the pitch, or complains going up the stairs after training, or asks to skip a session. By the next morning they seem fine, so nobody thinks much of it.

Then it happens again the following week. And the week after.

Heel pain in an active child aged roughly eight to fifteen is most commonly a condition called Sever’s disease, or calcaneal apophysitis. The name sounds alarming and the condition isn’t. But it does need managing properly, because the alternative is a child who quietly stops enjoying their sport.

Here’s what’s actually going on and what to do about it.