Contact sports can cause metatarsal injuries mainly in football and rugby.
Football players
Neymar
Neymar the most expensive footballer in the world (£200 million) has had two major metatarsal injuries on his right foot both being Jones fractures on the fifth toe. The second one being in January 2019 and took almost three months before he returned in April 2019. He missed PSG’s champions league campaign but was back to help them lift the ligue title.
Gabriel Jesus
The Manchester City forward broke his metatarsal in October 2017. He also suffered a Jones fracture on his fifth metatarsal which kept him out of action for a month and had surgery in Barcelona. Last season he scored 21 goals where he only started eight games in the league.
Manuel Neuer
The World Cup and champions league winner suffered a metatarsal injury on his left foot twice in one season in 2017. In total he was out for approximately 11 months. This is not normal but due to complications with surgery and other issues it took a long time before he got back to full fitness.
Wayne Rooney
The second most famous English player to suffer the dreaded injury which occurred in 2006. He injured his fourth metatarsal on his right foot just before the start of the World Cup in Germany. It took 14 weeks for Rooney to recover and he did make the England squad but did not play a major part. Rooney has in total injured his metatarsals three
Lionel Messi
To many he is the greatest player of all time Barcelona legend Lionel Messi injured his fifth metatarsal on his left foot in 2006 and did not reappear until 2007. It took him three months to recover. However this has not had any major impact on his career as he won title after title as well winning individual accolades including winning the Ballon d’or for a record five
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