My almost 11yo dd was diagnosed with this a year ago. She's an Irish dancer. No other sports. The xrays a year ago showed the bones had cracked in BOTH heels before we caught it (the tendon pulling so much can do that). The podiatrist (whose specialty is sports med) made her some custom orthotics. He'd hoped they could go into her dance shoes, but they can't. Not in the hard shoes, or the soft shoes (there are 2 kinds of shoes in Irish dance).
It took a while, but the stretches he gave her, along with daily use of the orthotics, allowed her bones to heel and stretched the tight tendons. But every time she seems to grow a little, it comes right back. In fact, it got so tight the last time that her knee began popping out of place (subluxation). Off to PT next.
PT saw that dance over-developed her calf muscles, but her hamstrings were CRAZY tight. Her feet suddenly turn in (pigeon-toed, which has NEVER happened). He said all that is because the muscles should be evenly developed, to counter each others' pressure on joints. He worked with her for a while, then "graduated" her but she has a folder of exercises to keep doing.
Fast forward 5 weeks. Severs pain is coming back. Not bad, but coming back yet again. This past Monday, she did her Severs-relieving stretches, went into dance class, and came right out crying. Achilles pain. For the first time in her LIFE. YIKES.
Stinks. For Severs pain, they have her stretching the calf/hamstring/achilles. For achilles pain, the dr wants her to NOT stretch the achilles area for a while, to allow it to heal.
WTH can this poor child do???
Sorry so long. Just trying to show how it's all connected. And how frustrating management of Severs can be. I'd say that MOST active kids will get pain in the growth plate with growth spurts, until the tendons & muscles catch up. But I don't know that they ALL have Severs.