Knee bruised

Dear Ask The Doctor: Hi, sorry to bother you but earlier I was playing football (soccer) and I mistimed a slide tackle and banged my knee into some hard fencing. It was very sore after this but it eased a bit then. I went home and had a warm bath and it seemed to get a bit better. I then put some ice on it and everything seemed better. Until twenty minuted later it became hard to touch and it hurt when I bent it and it even hurt when I touched it. Also, I've got a soccer game tommorow night and badly need to play. What do you think? Thanks, Matthew Jacka

Dear Matthew: According to your description of the events and the pain when you bend the knee, without instability, maybe it is an uncomplicated trauma of the knee which with relative rest and anti-inflammatory drugs has a good chance to improve in few weeks. But if you have persistent inflammation and pain along with remarkable limitation on flexion and extension associated with instability of the knee other post trauma conditions should be ruled out such as: injuries of ligaments or menisci, if this is the case the strategy would be: evaluation by an orthopedic surgeon and decide about perform some imaging studies to diagnose and treat the injury.