Severe calf and hamstring pain after playing basketball

Dear Ask The Doctor: I just played a basketball game yesterday and got knocked around, hard. i just woke up and my knee and calf are not even abe to bend up to 70 degrees without having an excrutiating pain in my shin, kneecap, and the back leg of my kneecap where the joint is. I literally CAN'T bend it all the way or I think i'd cry. What's wrong? What should i do? I have another game, should i play it? I see it only says 1 question. but this is all on the same thing, and i'd hate to spam the forum for the same cause.

Dear Riley: Most likely you are experiencing a muscle sprain which involves the tearing or stretching of the muscles and/or ligaments beyond their normal capacity, specifically the Hamstring muscles located in their lower insertion close to the back of the knee. Symptoms of muscle injury obviously involve pain, however it is not uncommon for the affected area to swell, redden and become bruised or discolored. All symptoms of muscle injury can range from mild to severe. Any muscle strain or muscle pull or even a muscle tear implies damage to a muscle or its attaching tendons. A common cause for this nowadays is the Repetitive stress injuries (RSIs), these are injuries that happen when too much stress is placed on a part of the body, resulting in inflammation (pain and swelling), muscle strain, or tissue damage. This stress generally occurs from repeating the same movements over and over again, with no enough healing time so they are also called “overuse syndrome”. The concept is that overuse injury is associated with repeated challenge without sufficient recovery time. The time of healing varies from patient to patient and also depends on the severity of the injury. The conservative treatment consists of: initially, protection, rest, ice, compression, and elevation (known as the PRICE formula) can help the affected muscle and also maintaining the strained muscle in a stretched position. Heat can be applied when the swelling has lessened, anti-inflammatory drugs (i.e.: “Aleve”), rest the strained muscle and avoid the activities that caused the strain and other activities that are painful. A Physical Therapy program for 4-6 weeks must be followed and practice at home the stretching exercises above all. The healing time and conditions for each patient are different. Avoid overuse and try to do an appropriate warming-up and stretching before significant physical activity.