Broken feet

We now have Bell out with a broken foot. I count at least ten broken feet in the last four years requiring surgery. This is not normal. Something is wrong. Plenty of people break their feet but very few require surgery.

It’s time for a different orthopedic foot specialist to take a look at this. If nothing else we should change our shoe/shoe contract.

And before anyone questions my credentials, I’m a doctor. To Richard or anyone else reading, I would be happy to review the individual cases, etc. I’ve offered before. Statistically this is not coincidence. From a fan perspective, this problem takes out 3-4 great players a year which is really hampering us.

Nice post, Invictahog. I’m no doc, but the sheer numbers of broken foot related injuries are astounding. Something needs to be done - and, sooner than later.

My suspicion is the shoes. If those shoes are not offering the proper support then those fragile bones in the feet will break. I’d get the Nike rep down to Fayetteville and hang him!

We have some docs on this board, maybe even some orthopedists. I’d love to hear their takes on this. It does seem we have an unusually high number of such injuries.

Anyone stay at a Holiday Inn Express?

I wouldn’t necessarily say the shoes are to blame but I do remember when I was in the marines in boot camp there was alot of us with foot injuries from having excessive weight on our shoulders and back and then running or hiking long distances and the feet were the first parts absorbing all that weight if that makes any sense

I spent 20 years in the Army and with all the running to include combat boots we had fewer problems. Of course years later we did learn running in combat boots was causing medical problems to the foot and chin. It would be nice for some research by medical folks to figure this out.
Change footwear would also be worth looking at!

My first thought was…again? I wondered last year after the rash of foot surgeries in Bielemas tenure just what the issue might be. Are we putting too much weight on players whos bone structure just cannot carry that weight? Is it the shoes? I just don’t believe it is bad luck, there has to be a reasonable explaination.

No but some of went through medical school and have treated hundreds of foot fractures without surgery.

They need an independent evaluation by people outside the program to come to the bottom of this.

Does a surgical repair last longer or heal more quickly than a natural healing?

Good questions all. Perhaps an independent medical review of the cases should be undertaken and in the future a second opinion sought before surgery. Are best practices being used? And, yes, find out what is causing the problem. Verify we do have a problem. That should be easy statistically comparing the numbers with other schools.

I’ve actually googled other schools, football, foot + fracture/broken. Nothing really. There are a lot of broken bones in football but broken foot bones are pretty uncommon. Break an ankle? Sure, you can get twisted in the pile. Break an arm? A tibia? Fingers? A hand? All of those happen. But broken feet are not so common.

I’m not saying that the surgeries are not necessary. They probably are. It’s the fact that the bones are breaking in the first place. Someone is going to publish an article in the American Journal of Sports Medicine about this and I’d rather it be this year after this fracture than five years from now after ten more fractures.

Goldsurfer looked this up and posted it on the Football Board. It deals with pro football players but apparently there is an uptick of foot injuries there, and they are using surgery to get the players back on the field quicker. I don’t know if they are the same kind of injuries, but it’s something to think about. I know I’ve torn my Achilles twice in two years (no surgery) and I’m still not walking without aid.

http://lermagazine.com/article/how-foot … todays-nfl

My suspicion is that most of these are Jones fractures given the frequent mention of screws and the need for repeat surgery. If you look at the study, you will see that there were 34 fractures in a 10 year period spread across all NFL teams. In four years with just one team we’re dealing with a quarter of the fractures. You can see just how unlikely this is to be just coincidence.

I’m telling you it has to be the weight training

I’m beginning to believe this may be the reason. A few years ago the UA put out a video of off season training which showed Jonathan Williams doing squats with one leg. A few months later Williams was out for the season with a “broken” foot.

The peanut gallery has it all figured out. Why hasn’t the orthopedic staff been all over this? If it is really something as simple as a weight lifting technique that is unique to the UofA-F, that should be simply identified and stopped, wouldn’t one think? Coach B certainly has an interest in the process as his job depends on keeping the best players on the field. For want of a nail, a shoe was lost…
???

This is absolutely in sane. Someone really needs to do some research.

The peanut gallery is merely asking for an external review to see what is being missed. Explore the statistical signal and take a closer look at each case to see what the common denominator is. When your p value is 0.0001 it’s worth looking for additional experts to corroborate or to debunk the findings of the first. The current orthopedic staff may not be researchers used to looking at a root cause analysis for a cluster of cases. They may be the best at fixing the bones but not at uncovering the common factor epidemiologically.

No one is saying that the doctors are stupid or that the staff doesn’t have a vested interest in figuring this out. I, speaking only for myself, am merely asking that they bring in an additional set of minds. I’d personally be happy to review the cases.

I agree we see too many of these foot injuries. Makes me wonder if it has something to with Turf v. Grass.

Didn’t Ole Miss go back to all natural grass field? We could use them as a case study to see if there was improvement on the injury topic.

MHO, turf just does more damage by having less cushion below the surface and also tends to grip shoes or cleats. Some turf have the hard rubber bits, others have a small cushion layer sitting on top of concrete and neither are comfortable.

Would like the feet to stay in one piece! Go HOGS, WPS!