Written by Zita Sham, Fairuuz Saleh and Shiv Mohan Banka, Principal Physiotherapists at Phoenix Rehab.Clinically reviewed by Louise Yow, Principal Physiotherapist and Director, AHPC A1300363H.Last reviewed 28 September 2026.
A groin strain is usually the adductors, the muscles on the inside of the thigh that pull the legs together. It happens in the moment you change direction, stretch for a ball or accelerate, and it is the injury most reliably rushed back and re injured.
The reason it recurs is that people return when it stops hurting, and pain leaves long before the muscle can take load at length, which is the position it tore in.
How to tell what you have done
An adductor strain is tender along the inside of the thigh or right up at the pubic bone, hurts when you squeeze your knees together against resistance, and hurts when the leg is taken out to the side. A hip flexor strain is felt at the front and hurts on lifting the knee. Hip joint pain is usually deeper, felt in the groin crease, and comes with stiffness rotating the hip.
Those three get confused constantly and they load differently, which is why a squeeze test and a rotation test at the first appointment are worth more than a description.
Groin pain that is not a muscle
This is the section worth reading even if you never come in. Groin pain can be a hernia, a hip joint problem, a stress fracture of the femoral neck, or referred from the lower back, and one of those is urgent. Groin pain that came on with running, is worse with weight bearing and hurts at night, particularly in a runner, needs imaging for a stress fracture rather than physiotherapy. Go to a doctor.
Also see a doctor for a lump in the groin, groin pain with testicular pain or swelling, fever, or an inability to weight bear after an injury.
Why rest is the wrong plan
Muscle heals by laying down tissue along the lines it is loaded through. Rested, it heals short and weak, and the first sprint finds the join. Loaded progressively, it heals along the direction it has to work in. That is why the strongest evidence in adductor rehabilitation is for a progressive strength program rather than for rest and stretching, and why the return to sport decision should be based on strength rather than on comfort.
The measurement people use is adductor squeeze strength, compared with the other side and with what you could do before. It is quick, it is repeatable, and it is the number that predicts whether the next sprint holds.
The four stages
- Stage 1, Calm and Protect. Settle the acute pain, keep walking, and start isometric work early because the muscle tolerates it long before it tolerates movement.
- Stage 2, Move and Mobilize. Range improved through the hip in all directions, and loading introduced through range. Criteria to move up are range and pain free squeeze at a set level.
- Stage 3, Rebuild and Strengthen. Progressive adductor loading, including at length, plus the hip and trunk work around it. This is the stage that prevents the recurrence.
- Stage 4, Return and Perform. Running, change of direction, kicking and the specific demands of your sport, cleared on strength testing rather than on the calendar.
Third time this year
A groin that keeps going is almost always a strength deficit that nobody measured, plus a return to sport that happened on feel. Each recurrence starts from a slightly worse baseline, which is why the interval between them shortens.
The Stalled Recovery Review is three appointments over three weeks with the same physiotherapist, $690 nett, no GST, and the first one is where the squeeze strength gets measured against the other side. See hip pain physiotherapy for the wider picture.
Where are you with this right now?
1. It is settling on its own
Hip pain from a specific overload often settles over six to twelve weeks with load management and graded strengthening. If you can walk further this month than last and sleeping on that side is getting easier, it is settling. You do not need us for this, and we would rather say so.
2. It has stopped improving
You put your socks on sitting down. You have stopped sleeping on that side. You take the stairs one at a time without noticing.
The hip stops hurting long before the muscles around it are strong again. That gap is where the limp comes from. That is the gap worth measuring, and it is not measured by how you feel on the day.
The Stalled Recovery Review is three appointments over three weeks with the same therapist, because what a joint does under load cannot be read in one visit. The first finds what is limiting it. The next two measure how it responds. $690, nett, no GST, which is three appointments at $230.
3. You have had surgery, or you have a date
Recovery after an operation has a shape, and knowing which stage you are in tells you whether you are on it. See the Hip Replacement Recovery Program, or hip physiotherapy if you are not sure which applies to you.
All of it runs on the same four stages. The Phoenix Recovery Protocol explains what each stage works on and what you have to meet to move up. No referral needed to start.
Next step
Find out which stage you are in
What our patients say
Google reviews from our clinics in Singapore.
Pain is the first thing to leave. Movement and strength are the last things trained back, and most people stop before that part is done. One Assessment and Treatment is a single 45-minute appointment at $230, nett, no GST. Your therapist finds what is actually limiting you, treats it in the same appointment, and you leave with your current stage and a written plan.
Prefer to phone? Each of our five clinics has its own number on the clinics page. No referral needed to book.
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