Turf injuries are well-described, especially in older forms of turf. It’s not really foot fractures that result. It may be something like that but I doubt it is that simple and would honestly look at footwear first and foremost.
Junior linebacker Josh Harris and freshman offensive lineman Dalton Wagner went down with foot injuries in the past week. They join a long list of Razorbacks with foot injuries the last three years, including Jamario Bell, Dre Greenlaw, Keon Hatcher, Cody Hollister, Alexy Jean-Baptiste, Kody Walker and Jonathan Williams.
And Josh Harris also has to have surgery. This is just sickening. At least this article mentions fifth metatarsal fractures which is what my suspicion has been. It sounds like Lisfranc has been an issues as well. With the amount of money the school gets for football they can afford to pay someone to figure this out.
I have been interested in sports medicine for years. I am a doc. I have over 250 CME hours in sports medicine and used to attend the NFL sports medicine programs yearly. That being said, it is not my primary field. I do not proclaim myself an expert, only a person with increased understanding. When dealing with athletes, most 5th metatarsal fractures will not heal without being pinned. If you take a small crack in the bone, then apply physics you can understand the fracture. An athlete with a small stress fracture in the metatarsal who is exerting 250-315 pounds of body weight through that extremity at max effort produces a significant amount of pressure on the weakened surface. This is why it fractures and a major reason it requires surgery to heal. I feel most stress fractures come from weight x power that we see now. Athletes in college football are not only big, but fast and powerful as well. Also, don’t forget, one reason we may be seeing more foot injuries is because the staff is much more aware of them and they are diagnosed much earlier and treated more aggressively than at other schools.