As the footballer’s primary tools, the feet are always at risk of injury in the world’s most popular sport, whether through physical stress, overextension or direct impact. One of the most famous injuries in football is surely the broken metatarsal. There are five metatarsals in the middle of each foot, extending from the heel to each toe. A fracture of any one of them is a serious matter, requiring a recovery period of around four to twelve weeks, depending on the type and severity of the break and the exact location.
Brazilian soccer star Neymar’s cracked metatarsal was discovered during an examination of an injured ankle. An ultrasound examination of the ankle was followed up with a CT scan to get a better look, which showed the unexpected presence of a crack in the fifth metatarsal (the outermost, behind the smallest toe). Read about Neymar’s foot fracture here.
Computed tomography (CT) or simple x-ray are the most commonly used imaging techniques used to identify bone fractures, and they may also be used to keep track of the healing process. X-ray is the ‘gold standard’ for the evaluation of bone fractures and it is a cheap and simple diagnostic method.
Detecting a fracture on an x-ray image is relatively simple, due to the clear break in the bone continuity, like in this 5th metatarsal bone fracture (arrow):
Note: image is an example – not that of the athlete named above.
Trained radiologists can tell a lot from an image such as this, including the likely healing time, whether surgery is required and what steps should be taken by the patient to aid recovery.
For more information about metatarsal fractures, click here.