Fall is officially here. The leaves are falling and the temperature is dropping. For the many in this state, that means one thing: Time to watch football.
One of the things that is bound to happen with football is that there are going to be some injuries. We have seen a bunch of knee, ankle and shoulder injuries here in the clinic with our local high school athletes. However, football injuries also hit the national sports news when high profile professional athletes are involved. I often get questions about what these injuries really are, so I thought I would talk about a couple that have been in the news lately.
Lisfranc injury: This one hit close to home with Packer RB Cedric Benson out for many weeks with this diagnosis. Basically, this injury is a sprain or dislocation, depending on severity, of the midfoot. Instead of spraining the ligaments at the ankle joint, the injury occurs where the metatarsal bones attach to the small foot bones in the arch. When someone is in a plantar flexed position (toe pointing down) and a force is applied (like another player landing on them in a pile up), then the foot is twisted causing the injury. The long recovery is due to the fact treatment involves non-weight bearing for around six weeks to allow the ligaments to heal. If really unstable, then surgery may be needed which can also affect the recovery time.
High Ankle Sprain: This injury happens more often but can be just as debilitating as a Lisfranc depending on the severity. These injuries are referred to as "high" ankle sprains because of the location being above the ankle at the ligaments that connect the tibia and fibula. More common ankle sprains occur below the ankle, usually at the ligaments coming from the fibula attaching to the talus or calcaneus bones of the foot. High ankle sprains are often caused more when the foot is turned out and a significant amount of rotation is involved. Due to the need for that stability between the tibia and fibula, these take longer to heal and at times might need surgery with pins placed to provide the stability while the ligaments heal. Either way, it is usually a long recovery of six to eight weeks before someone is able to get back to playing sports.
I hope this helps when you hear about these injuries as the season wears on. Hopefully your favorite players can avoid these difficult injuries.
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