Popping/clicking in hind leg

Hi. I have a 11 month old Caucasian shepherd named Aslan. He is 120lbs and on Acana large breed puppy food. Eats, drinks like normal, not lethargic, seems to want to try to play and run like normal. About a month and a half ago he started limping a bit. I gave him a couple days rest but then it came back. I repeated that, but again he seemed fine but with exercise it came back only worse (still weight bearing). That was about 2 weeks. I have had him do very restricted exercise for the last month and his limp was improving very nicely. However about two weeks in his leg started making a popping/clicking sound when he walked up steeper inclines (our property is very hilly. Also there was no increase in limping). I brought him to the vet who did not listen to the popping and instead told me it was probably a pulled muscle in his groin. Fast track to today, his limp is almost gone but his leg is very stiff, and the popping occurs on any incline no matter how small. I'm not sure if this is related but he has also started incessantly licking at one side of his groin area to the point where the fur is gone and its raw. (I have a date booked for his xray but they were heavily booked so it's not for 3 weeks. Also I have not been able to identify where on his leg the sound is from exactly)

Hello - licking at an area can be a sign of pain, so if the two appear to correlate then it may be worth asking your vet to review your dogs' pain-relief situation.  It sounds difficult to tell from the description where the clicking is coming from, but if your dog is self-mutilating the skin and this looks set to get worse, then it may well be worth asking your vet to bring the appointment forwards, because skin can deteriorate a lot in three weeks.   I do hope that something there is helpful.