Ledley King is the latest high profile English footballer who has broken a metatarsal in his foot.

This season England stars, Ledley King, Michael Owen and Ashley Cole have all fallen foul to the same injury. Reminding me of the 2002 World Cup preparation, where David Beckham, Danny Murphy, Gary Neville and Trevor Sinclair all injured their metatarsals. Oh, and don’t forget Wayne Rooney broke his in the Euro 2004 and Stephen Gerrard shortly after it.

That’s nine English players off of the top of my head.

What is the Metatarsal?

They are the five long bones at the front of your feet. They help share the load of the body and adjust to cope with uneven ground.

Bladed Football Boots

The reason that bladed football boots have come under attack, is due to the regularity of this type of injury of late, which coincides with the introduction of the bladed football boot. Bladed football boots have also been banned by some clubs, Manchester United being one of them.

Prior to 2002, I didn’t even know I had a metatarsal, let alone 10 of them. Nowadays, any football follower will now be familiar with the term metatarsal.

So back to the blade. There are two main reasons that a bladed football boot can be held responsible for the injury.

1. The thin blades on the soles can penetrate through a football boot. Due to it’s blade like feature, if on impact it hits the metatarsal this breaks the bone.

2. Due to the rigidity of the boot with the blade deep in the ground, bladed football boots do not have ‘give’ in them when turning. When twisting, the metatarsal can be put under extreme pressure when the football boot is fixed and ultimately can break.

This website is not going to be able to protect our delicate stars for the forthcoming World Cup, but don’t you agree that something needs to be done, for England’s sake?



