What could this pain above my kneecap be?

Pain/discomfort around my kneecap?

• I like to do a lot of sport, and my main sport is martial arts, and quite often after or during I get lasting pain on the outsdie of my left kneecap, and it is not too painful, it is more discomfort verging on a small amount of pain sometimes. It doesn;t go away for hours and can sometimes last for a day or two. It is more irritating than painful, and becasue it is the sme spot everytime, I am wondering if I have something wrong with it. I want to join the army in two years so if it is going to be a problem i want to get it sorted (hopefully) now. anyone know what it is? thanks :)

• Answer:

  Bend that knee at a 90 degree angle, and see if you have a lump right under your knee cap that you don't have on your other leg. If that's the case, then it's probably Osgood-Shlatter Disease (OSD) which is common during adolescence and childhood. I'd explain it if I could, but I'd get something wrong. If you research it and find that you have it, it's nothing to fret about. You'll always have discomfort there when you squat or climb stairs or something, but the pain you're experiencing now will dissipate once your body stops growing (though the lump will never go away). I'll post a link that helped me learn a lot about it.