Overview

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The foot is an extremely complex structure with 28 bones, 30 joints and over 100 other soft tissue structures in each foot alone!

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The forefoot makes up and important piece of this puzzle as it is where we place a lot of weight and pressure when we are producing force through the push of phase of running, walking and jumping. There are a number of issues which can arise in the forefoot involving the fatty padding, joint capsule, bone health, ligament structure, nerve irritation and bursae.

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Below are some of the most common forefoot injuries we see with a brief description of each:

Inter-metatarsal Bursitis / Neuritis

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• This involves irritation of the space between your metatarsal bones (the bones in your forefoot)

• It can present as burning, tingling, numbness of your forefoot and toes

• Some people will only report these symptoms when in certain shoes, indicating that those shoes could be aggravating symptoms through compression

• Intermetatarsal Bursitis can be diagnosed and treated at any of Movepod Podiatry Clinics.

Metatarsophalangeal Capsulitis / Synovitis

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• These two injuries involve the joints at the ball of your foot

• Capsulitis involves irritation of the soft tissue that holds the joint together

• Synovitis is irritation of the surface of the bone within the joint

• These can sometimes feeling like bruising, achey or sharp pain underneath the ball of the foot when standing for periods of time

• Some people will describe this as being worse when barefoot or when in thin soled flexible shoes