Plantar Fasciitis, Will it stop your fantasy football player?

It's Sunday, it 11am and you are sitting comfortably and getting your last minute adjustments made to your fantasy football team. Then you see it, that capital P, for your rock star player being probable. Probable??? What kind of nonsense is that? Upon reading on, you read the two words Plantar Fasciitis.

If you are lucky, you have already had this in your lifetime so you know it hurts but can most likely play through the pain for a couple million dollars.

But actually, if you are one of the lucky ones who has never had this, you may not know if it is worth the risk to play the "P" player who has plantar fasciitis.  We figured as two foot and ankle surgeons that make up the "2 Pods and A Microphone" Podcast, we could fill you in on what is Plantar Fasciitis, and is it something you should bench your fantasy football player or take the chance and play them.

The plantar fascia is a tight band on the bottom of the foot that connects the heel bone, the calcaneus, to the long flexor tendons to the toes. What I always tell patients when they come into the office with heel pain or plantar fasciitis, is that even though it hurts so darn bad the cure really revolves around stretching believe or not in most cases.  Sure it can require a medicine by mouth or even a shot with some extra support in shoe gear, but this does not have to be a deal breaker for your fantasy football player.  I have 65 year old patients that can got from a 10 to a 1 on the pain scale with some simple steps.

Steps to getting rid of your heel pain:

1.  No barefoot for the next 6-8 weeks
2.  Static calf stretches (if you do not know what that means check out our Pinterest Page Heel Pain          Helpers http://www.pinterest.com/cafcdpm/heel-pain-helpers/
3.  Get a 16-20oz bottle of water, freeze it and take it out of the freezer at least 2x's a day and roll it           back and forth under your foot with a thin sock on or barefoot(I tell patients all of the time that           this is like physical therapy with out a copay)
4.  Look at your shoes, if they have no arch support ditch them or get a really good arch support like our over the counter arch supports for heel pain(shameless plug, but they are really good:) They retail for $60 and go by shoes size you can order your pair on our website     at http://centeranklefootcare.com/ )

5.  Of course, if you can take an anti-inflammatory and you have no drug interactions that will also help this feel better for you.



So again, this is very rarely a surgical problem and if you have a fantasy football player that is one of your top point earners week in and week out, this is not going to stop them.  The name is scary but is nothing to truly fear.

Listen to our "2 Pods and A Microphone" Podcast below, where we discuss NFL Week 4 Fantasy Football Lower Extremity Injuries.  Also we break it to our 10 year old daughter that is in the same Fantasy Football league as us, that mom's new addition to her team, tight end Larry Donnell scored 3 touchdowns against the defense her father told her to pick up.  We are just hoping she doesn't use the word collusion to her own parents:)