The Foot Detective
Sole Trace
Publishing Details
About This Podcast
The Foot Detective Podcast is where foot pain gets treated like a case file — not a guessing game. Hosted by Sole Trace, each episode investigates the clues behind common foot and lower-limb problems: plantar heel pain, Achilles issues, shin pain, tendon trouble, nerve symptoms, toe stiffness, overload injuries, and the weird “why does it hurt there?” mysteries runners live with.
Expect clear, evidence-led explanations in plain English, practical rehab and training tweaks you can actually use, and red flags you shouldn’t ignore. No gimmicks. No miracle gadgets. Just smart investigating, better understanding, and a plan that helps you get back to moving well.
Feet don’t lie. I just follow the clues.
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Recent Episodes
S3E12 Epilogue
He closed the notebook on the last morning and looked out at the sea.Ten cases. Ten knees. One week on the coast that had not, in any meaningful sense, constituted a holiday. He was already thinking…
S3E11 Case 030: The Loaded Spring — Patellar Tendinopathy
Case 030: The Loaded Spring — Patellar TendinopathyTwo years. The same tendon, the same clinicians, the same advice: rest it, ice it, let the inflammation settle. And every time he returned to the…
S3E10 Case 029: The Friction Line Iliotibial Band Syndrome
Case 029: The Friction Line — Iliotibial Band SyndromeKilometre four. Every run, without fail, for six weeks. The lateral knee pain was so consistent it had started to feel like a scheduled…
S3E9 Case 028: The Empty Frame The Phantom X-Ray — When Normal Imaging Hides the Real Story
Case 028: The Empty Frame — The Phantom X-RayShe had carried the X-ray for six weeks, convinced someone would eventually see what three clinicians had missed. The report was clean. The knee was not.…
S3E8 Case 027: The Inside Job Medial Collateral Ligament Injury
Case 027: The Inside Job — Medial Collateral Ligament InjuryA valgus force on a planted knee. Three days of strapping and a transatlantic flight later, he wants to run a half marathon by the weekend.…
S3E7 Case 026: The Crossed Pattern Lower Crossed Syndrome
Case 026: The Crossed PatternLower Crossed SyndromeIs Lower Crossed Syndrome a genuine clinical phenomenon, or simply a convenient label for a common movement pattern?In this episode of The Foot…
S3E6 Case 025: The Front Line — Quadriceps Strain & Tear
This one happens in a moment. A step, a push, a burst of effort — and then a sharp pain across the front of the thigh. The runner can still move, but something isn’t right. The leg doesn’t want to…
S3E5 Case 024: The Long Pull — Hamstring Strain & Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy
This case looks like one injury, but it isn’t. A sharp pull during sprinting and a deep ache at the sitting bone may both be called “hamstring pain” — but they behave very differently.In this episode…
S3E4 Case 023: The Unravelling — Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury
This one starts with a moment the runner remembers clearly: a planted foot, a descent, a pop, and a knee that suddenly no longer feels like it belongs to them. The X-ray was normal. The swelling…
S3E3 Case 022: The Torn Witness — Medial Meniscus Injury
This one comes with a moment the runner can replay clearly. A planted foot. A twist. A pop — felt more than heard. The knee swells overnight, settles with rest, then swells again the moment running…
S3E2 Case 021: The Grind — Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (Runner’s Knee)
This one shows up after the run is done. The climb felt manageable. The descent didn’t. By the time she’s sitting on the sea wall, both hands are on her knees — the pain sitting deep behind the…
S3E1 The Holiday That Wasn’t — A Sole Trace Interlude season 3
He had booked the holiday in January. Told three separate people he was looking forward to it. And, by all observable measures, he should have been. The sun did what it was meant to. The coastline…
S2E10 Case 020: The Patella’s Complaint — Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (Runner’s Knee)
Case 020: The Patella’s Complaint — Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (Runner’s Knee)This one sits at the front of the knee — beneath and around the kneecap — and shows up where runners feel it most:…
S2E9 Case 019: Behind the Knee Popliteus Strain
Case 019: Behind the Knee — Popliteus StrainThis case hides in plain sight. The runner points to the back of the knee — not above, not below, not along the usual tracks of injury. Just behind it. The…
S2E8 Case 018 - The Deep One - Soleus Strain
Case 018: The Deep One — Soleus StrainThis case doesn’t shout from the surface. It sits deeper. Lower in the calf. Harder to point to. The runner feels it build during long runs, linger afterwards,…
S2E7 Case 017: The Forgotten Suspect Plantaris Strain
Case 017: The Forgotten Suspect — Plantaris StrainThis case rarely gets solved on the first attempt. The runner feels a sudden snap in the back of the calf — sharp, unexpected, and unmistakable. It…
S2E6 Case 016: The Cushion Job
Case 016: The Cushion Job — Heel Fat Pad SyndromeThis case is easy to misread. The runner reports a deep, bruised ache right in the centre of the heel — as if they are landing on a stone that never…
S2E5 Case 015: The Crooked Angle Hallux Valgus (Bunion)
Case 015: The Crooked Angle — Hallux Valgus (Bunion)This case rarely begins as an injury. It begins as something the runner has simply learned to live with — a toe drifting outward, a bony prominence…
S2E4 Case 014 - The Overreach
Case 014: The Reach — OverstridingThis case rarely arrives under one name. It turns up as shin pain, then anterior knee pain, then hip flexor tightness, then back to the shin again. Each flare-up…
S2E3 Case 013 - Death By Distance - Overtraining Syndrome
Case 013: Death by Distance — Cumulative Fatigue & Overtraining SyndromeThis case doesn’t break the runner all at once. It wears them down slowly. The pace stops improving. Easy runs begin to…
Frequently Asked Questions
The Foot Detective has published 33 episodes since February 2026, covering topics in Health & Fitness, Medicine.
The Foot Detective is currently highly active with new episodes hourly. Average episode length is 6m.
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