UPDATE: A. J. Green and turf toe....Foot Doctor's Fantasy Football team gone wrong!!!!

Update: today, October 8th, 2014 Dr. McGowan's Fantasy Football player A.J. Green carted off the field with toe injury we are assuming still related to turf toe.  Read our blog on Turf toe and see why a fantasy football player with turf toe is no good.

Why are we talking about turf toe and fantasy football? Well this is an injury that can greatly effect your fantasy football team.  It doesn't sound so bad, turf toe sounds like you stubbed your toe but no big deal, right? WRONG! Turf toe is an injury of the big toe joint that can be very difficult to overcome when you are propelling 300 plus pound off this little joint.  It can be the difference between being able to push through into the end zone or being stopped dead in your tracks. (FYI you do not to be playing on Astroturf to get this injury)

If your fantasy football player has turf toe and it is new, you may want to think about sitting him, especially if you have someone else comparable on your bench. This is an injury, that depending on the extent of damage to the joint and cartilage, that could seriously slow your player down. Like my A.J. Green for example, struggling for the last couple of weeks and now at practice week six  carted off the field due to his turf toe.  Which is killing me, but I hope he recovers:)

Turf toe can be from trauma to the toe in one incident or the compound effect of repetitive micro trauma over a season.  Neither one is much better. The first, a one time traumatic incident, usually is going to require some time off in a cam walking boot to rest the bottom of the great toe joint and the sesamoid apparatus.  This player will be icing and resting.  As long as the ligaments of the sesamoids are not damaged this does not have to be career ending but it will be career slowing, for lack of a better term.  If this injury is due to repetitive micro trauma over time, I believe this type of player will play but just struggle here and there.  During the off season they should go into the cam walking boot for two months to truly give it the rest it needs. 

X-rays do not show us much unless there is a sesamoid fracture involved with the injury but that is a different beast.  An MRI can be useful to see if the bones of the great toe joint are inflamed under the cartilage.  Otherwise, it truly is R.I.C.E. and time that will heal this injury, but hopefully not at the expense of your fantasy football team:) If a patient is struggling like A.J. Green it is usually 6-8 weeks in a walking cast.