However half of all cases of meniscus damage are caused by persistent overstrain, above all in jobs that are associated with kneeling.

The menisci are to be found on the medial and lateral sides of the knee joint and act as "shock absorbers" between the thigh and the calf. As an example, if someone turns on a knee when the foot is fixed and the knee bent, the meniscus will be squashed and it either tears along its longitudinal axis or is ripped off the bone (usually the medial meniscus). Meniscus tears are often also combined with ligament damage in the knee joint, because the course of events leading to injury are similar for the menisci and the knee ligaments.