Soccer Shinguard Rash Cured?

So my son brought home a surprise from soccer camp yesterday: a nasty redness on his shins where his shinguards touch him.  He didn't complain about it, it didn't itch.  The rash's principal purpose seemed to be to make his parents worry. But, worry we did, so we struck out for a solution.

We'd seen this in the past, and have been told that it was from bacteria, so we washed and sanitized the shinguards.  No luck, it returned.  Internet searches revealed the same results from other parents.

What seemed to cause this rash was that it was on hot days or when he wore his shinguards especially long.  He certainly sweated a lot, and the shinguards didn't do a good job of wicking out the moisture.

So this got me thinking...  Moisture trapped against the skin by some material for too long...  That's a recipe for diaper rash.  So perhaps a diaper cream would work wonders?

Turns out it did.  We applied some zinc-oxide based diaper cream (Desitin) after his practice today, kept his socks off and kept him dry, and by nighttime it was nearly gone.

So hopefully Google will find this and help out some parents.