Chronic groin, hip and gluteal pain is a common problem in athletes. Complex anatomy, non-specific presentation and a wide variety of potential causes mean narrowing the differential diagnosis may be difficult.

The experienced practitioner develops the skills to recognise patterns in presentation, which lead the direction of clinical examination. This knowledge base of both basic anatomy and science along with the clinical experience takes a considerable period of time to attain.1

Although some suggest the diagnostic power of history-taking and examination is poor,2 3 there is much evidence that this is due less to the diagnostic power of the test than to …