Possible Injury? Talus Or Calcaneus

[fiercerthanthenext]

So 2 years ago I did high school cheerleading and tumbling on the hard floor really hurt my foot. It's like the front of my foot that connects my foot to my leg. I didn't think much of it, so I put a brace an ankle brace on and continued cheering throughout the season. I stopped high school cheerleading that year for different reasons, and my foot no longer hurt. I was allstar cheering at the same time and continued to cheer there.
However, the pain returned when I was landing some roundoff handspring tucks short the other day. It's a minor pain when I'm not tumbling, but it hurts a lot when I do simple standing backhandsprings now. I did some research and it came up as a possible injury in either my talus or calcaneus.
Has anyone else had this problem and if so, is there anyway to strengthen that area? And any specific braces to wear while tumbling?

 

[Mamarazzi]

First, self-diagnosis is highly dangerous, not to mention usually inaccurate. Get your behind to an orthopedic doc.
Second, since this sounds more like an acute flare-up of a chronic condition, rather than a sudden, traumatic injury, I would imagine a doctor might tell you that it's not the talus or calcaneus (heelbone.) More likely, it's tendonitis, osteoarthritis or nerve impingement. There could be lots of reasons for the pain, and it may not even have anything to do with the actual foot (there are tendons from leg muscles that attach down where you're describing your pain.)
A good doctor and physical therapist would be able to recommend the correct brace, if needed, and exercises to strengthen any weakness, plus they can do muscle testing, ROM tests, etc., to figure out the exact culprit and get you fixed up and on your way back to full form.

Good luck!