A groin strain is a tear in one of the adductor muscles, the muscles on the INSIDE of your thigh that pull your legs together. Most heal well without surgery.
Typical recovery times:
- Grade 1 (mild): about 1 to 3 weeks
- Grade 2 (moderate): about 4 to 8 weeks
- Grade 3 (a complete tear): often 2 to 3 months or more. Surgery is occasionally used, and recovery after it usually takes longer, not shorter
The fastest route back is not rest. It’s gradual STRENGTHENING of the inner thigh, started early and built up week by week.
How it happens and what it feels like
Groin strains are common in soccer, hockey, rugby, tennis and any sport with kicking, sprinting, sudden changes of direction or sliding into a split. Pain high in the back of the thigh after a sprint or split is more likely a hamstring tear.
- A sharp pain in the inner thigh or groin at the moment of injury, sometimes with a pop
- Pain when you squeeze your knees together, or lift the leg out to the side and across
- Tenderness where the muscle attaches near the pubic bone, or a little lower along the inner thigh
- Bruising on the inner thigh a day or two later, more likely with a bigger tear
- Pain walking, running or climbing stairs, and weakness when you kick
The three grades
- Grade 1: a few fibers are torn. It hurts, but strength is mostly normal and you can walk without a limp
- Grade 2: a larger part of the muscle is torn. Squeezing your knees together is painful and weak, and you may limp
- Grade 3: the muscle or its tendon is torn right through. Strength is badly reduced and there is often a lot of bruising
A physio or doctor can usually grade it by examination. An ultrasound or MRI is sometimes used for a suspected complete tear or in professional athletes.
Rehab, stage by stage
- First few days: ice for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, walk as comfort allows, and avoid stretching into pain. Gentle pain-free squeezes of a pillow between the knees can start early
- Early strengthening: ball or pillow squeezes lying on your back, side-lying lifts of the bottom leg, bridges, and a stationary bike
- Middle stage: standing band exercises pulling the leg inward, side lunges, and the Copenhagen progression below
- Late stage: jogging, then sprinting, then cutting, kicking and sport-specific drills
A little discomfort during exercise is fine. Pain that is sharp, or worse the next morning, means you did too much. Drop back a step for a few days.
The Copenhagen exercise, made simple
This is the single best-known inner-thigh exercise, and it works. In football players, doing it regularly cut groin problems by roughly FOUR in ten.
- Level 1, short lever: lie on your side with your top knee resting on a bench or chair seat. Lift your hips and bring the bottom leg up to meet the bench, then lower slowly
- Level 2, long lever: the same move with your top ankle or foot on the bench instead of your knee. This is much harder
- Level 3: more repetitions of the long-lever version, over more sets
- How often: about three times a week while building up, then once a week to keep the gains
Start with a few repetitions and add one or two each week. Move up a level only when the current one is easy and pain-free.
A groin strain heals on its own. Whether it heals STRONG is up to the work you do.
Return to sport
Return is based on tests, not the calendar. You’re usually ready when:
- Squeezing strength is close to the other side
- Sprinting, kicking and cutting feel normal and don’t hurt
- You’ve trained fully with the team without pain the next day
Going back too early is a common reason groin strains come back. A previous groin injury is one of the strongest risk factors for the next one, so keep doing the Copenhagen exercise once a week after you return. The Cleveland Clinic explains the grades and home treatment in its guide to groin strain.
When groin pain is the hip joint instead
Pain from inside the hip joint is often felt in the groin, and it’s easy to mistake for a strain. Suspect the joint if:
- The pain is deep, and you show where it is by cupping the front and side of the hip in a C shape
- There was no clear moment of injury, or it keeps coming back
- Sitting, getting out of a car or putting on socks hurts more than squeezing your knees together
- The hip clicks, catches or feels stiff turning inward
In younger active people that points toward a hip labral tear or hip impingement. In people over about 50 it’s often early hip arthritis. Pain at the front of the hip when lifting the knee may be a hip flexor strain instead.
Go to the emergency department if
- You have sudden, severe pain or swelling in a testicle, or testicle pain with nausea, vomiting or belly pain. This can be a twisted testicle, which needs surgery within hours. See the NHS advice on testicle pain
- A lump in the groin becomes very painful, turns red, purple or dark, or comes with vomiting or being unable to pass gas. That can be a trapped hernia
- You have groin pain with a fever or feel generally unwell
- You’re older and fell, and now can’t stand on the leg, or it looks shorter or turned out. That can be a hip fracture. Some people with a hip fracture can still walk, so get groin pain after a fall checked the same day
Get it checked if
- You notice a bulge in the groin that is more obvious when you stand, cough or strain. That may be a hernia
- A testicle has a lump or feels different, even if it doesn’t hurt
- You’re a runner with groin pain that is worse with every step and aches at night. It could be a stress fracture of the hip
- You can’t walk without a limp after a few days, or there is heavy bruising and marked weakness
- It isn’t improving after 6 to 8 weeks of steady rehab
Rest settles a groin strain. Strength stops it coming back.