Football boots for Sever's disease (heel pain)

[Emanresu9]

My 11 year old is newly diagnosed with Sever's which is awful heel pain when exercising - apparently common in active children. He does a huge amount of sport and we are just learning about how to manage this blow. He will have to give up some sport I think (he will be devastated) but I'm looking for tips on footwear, specifically football boots. All the boots are so flat, no cushioning at all are there any that are better quality?

I have gel pads for the heel from Amazon - £5 which I will put in but wondering if there is a boot with a good heel drop as that would help too. Asics make one but not available in the UK sadly. A 10mm heel raise would make a difference I think.

He runs in Hokas and Asics and they seem good for him. It's Astros and footy boots which cause him absolute crippling pain. We will be resting now, but i need boots to try for when he returns to sport

hopeful bump

My son wears sketchers trainers which help with his heel pain. When he wears school shoes or football boots he takes out the bouncy in sole and swaps it into the other shoes. It helps enough but obv the boots etc have to be big enough.

i would maybe rethink the hokas ( which I do love so not hating on them generally) as zero drop shoes do put more pressure on the Achilles. Also quite a sloppy heel box on some models. The chiropodist recommended ASICS when my son had it as good drop and a very rigid heel box.

Both my dc’s had it- in the morning they’d be walking around on their toes as it was so tight. They grew out of it really quickly though so don’t worry too much- did they tell him to do the stretches?

Thank you that is good advice. I will look at asics for him

Hi, one of mine had severs. We paid for bespoke insoles that raised her foot and corrected a fallen arch. That seemed to help ease the pain a lot.

Eventually she literally grew out of it. She still has insoles though !

Nothing to do with football but my daughter had this age 12-13 (bones grew super fast and muscles and tendons didn’t adjust properly) and we found acupuncture treatment really successful- she’s a keen dancer and hated having to sit out due to the heel pain but the acupuncture was really good (we did have to pay, but for me it was well worth it)

Hi just wondering if you got anywhere with finding suitable football boots? My 12 year old son also has severs and his heel is really aggravated by playing football in Astro boots. I felt I could have written your exact post!

@madasabrush yes we are in such a better place with his feet than when I made this post. First we rested him completely for 2-3 weeks. It’s shit, and they don’t want to, but he was SO bad that it was necessary. Literally hobbling round the house and couldn’t put weight on feet.

then what works for us is:

never ever bare foot. He has a pair of crocs for the house and we wears them at all times indoors.

he had cheap £50 football boots before. We went to a shop and looked for a pair that had a removable insole (his old ones didn’t) and much cushioning than his cheap ones. Ended up with Nike Air Zoom Mercurial Vapor Pro. Turns out there are different category of boot and if you pay more they’re much more cushioned. Then we slipped a gel heel pad from Amazon under the insole of each boot. He said now when he plays he was an 8/10 on the pain scale now more like 3/10 which he can live with.

we replaced his running shoes with ASICS that had a 10mm heel drop. So the back of the shoe is 10mm higher than the front which gets weight off the heel and onto ball of foot.

we put a gel heel pad under the insole of every piece of footwear he owns. School shoes, footie boots, astros, trainers, everything. In his astros there is room for 2 heel pads on top of each other under the insole. Even better. I joke it’s like he’s playing in high heels but helps get the impact of every stuff onto balls of feet not heels.

we’ve cut down sport. He used to play 6 days a week between all his sports. Now he has a day off every other day. It won’t be forever but reducing the load has really helped.

We saw a podiatrist who made bespoke orthotics with heel lifts and a Physio who gave exercises/stretches. Also bought special sliders that kept the foot supported.

The general rule of thumb is that they shouldn't do more hours of exercise than their age (so age 12 maximum 12 hours etc).

I think stiffer more old fashioned boots offer more stability and support than the new fangled soft-sock type though that's less about Severs and more about propensity to foot injuries in general. Our Physio has seen an explosion in foot injuries in kids since the advent of those boots.

Oh and no school shoes! Trainers with orthotics in.

DD has managed hers with gel insoles in school shoes and a paracetamol before football. It hasn’t flared up much since we did that. Interesting about the Mercurials being better for him. I’d like to get DD some that are designed for women next time out so will do some exploring on those too.

@Emanresu9 Thank you so much for the update, very helpful!

We had tried a rest period and the gel heel pads in every shoe, which did help for a period. Then he got new (cheap), almost flat - astros and they seemed to make everything worse again. We will definitely look into those football boots and have now started the crocs in the house. He probably needs better running trainers to so will check out those. Thanks again for all the advice, hope your son’s pain stays manageable.

@madasabrush yep been there with the cheap flat Astros. Had to replace them and it’s been a lot better since.

You need to look for cleats that provide firm heel counters (back part of the cleat) with extra cushion and padding below the heels. FIT is the most important factor, so make sure that the cleats fit your child's foot shape whether it's narrow, medium, wide, or extra wide. Here is a resource that has specific soccer cleat recommendations for children with heel pain: https://fittingchildrenshoes.com/soccer-shoes-for-kids-with-heel-pain-supportive-shoes-with-heel-cups-to-stop-your-kids-heel-pain/

You may not see this but just to say you advise was invaluable. Within a week and at much expense, the heel pain has gone from a 9 to a 1 or 2!
we bought heel inserts for all shoes including school shoes, PE trainers, casual trainers and football boots. We purchased the mecurial vapor pro.
from what I can tell the inserts raise the foot and the heel/achilles cushion provides stability and support!
now just need to teach him how to walk properly as we believe he was over compensated to manage the pain which affected his gait both running and walking.

This is so wonderful to read thank you! Severs is now just a bad memory for us. He's totally healed and back into all his sport. He's now 13.5yr and I think at least if it ever flares up again we will catch it quick and know what to do.