Patient Comments Read 38 Comments Share Your Story. Trauma is the most obvious cause of leg pain. Falls, near falls, and twisting injuries can damage bones, muscles, and joints of the leg or a combination of all three. Back pain, due to injury, can inflame the sciatic nerve and cause sciatica. This is a pain that radiates down the leg that follows the path of one of the many nerve roots that leave the spinal cord and make up the sciatic nerve. Sciatic pain usually begins in the back and radiates to the buttock and into the thigh.