Athletes are people who push their physical and mental capacity to the limit in order to be able to compete and win on their respective sports. These groups of people earn fame, money, as well as injuries while on the process of success. The injuries acquired ranges from mild to severe problems depending on the sports that they are in to. Contact sports and those that involve strenuous and demanding activities have a higher percentage of damage dealt to a particular part of the human body. Regular people can also have any of these injuries especially when under stress.

In case you are feeling pain on your foot, you might want to get it checked by a medical professional in order to be able to confirm if there are injuries on your lower limb. Doctors, therapist, physicians and any medical specialist can diagnose and assess the condition and situation of your foot in case it has an injury such as a fracture. Although damages to the muscle tissues and other essential parts of the human body are also painful, a fracture to the bone is more serious and does provide higher level of pain to a patient.

When it comes to taking care of injuries such as a metatarsal fracture, the first thing you need to do is to consult your doctor regarding the condition of your foot. In most cases, the best way (doctor's advice) to take care of your metatarsal fracture or any injury is to provide adequate rest and support on the affected area of the body. Immobilizing it will mean a great help and benefit to the damaged foot especially on serious cases. X-ray sessions should be done regularly in order for the doctor to be able to check on the progress of the injury. Cold compress should also be done frequently especially right after the onset of the swelling and pain. Avoid stepping on the affected foot as this will cause more damages to the injury. In addition, the injured foot is not capable of handling the weight of the body which in return will compromise the structural integrity of the already damaged bone of the foot. Insoles can also be helpful in providing cushion to the foot.

Rehabilitation programs should be introduced right at the offset of pain. This would include stretching and strengthening which are both essential in allowing you to compete again in your particular sport. Discuss with your doctor anything that you would like to add in your medical care and rehabilitation program before you try them to avoid unnecessary troubles in the long run.

In critical cases where one or more of the metatarsal bones are displaced or severely fractured, surgery should be initiated quickly in order to help the patient recover properly from the injury. Surgical fixation has a high percent of restoring the function and normal condition of the damaged metatarsal bone. However, this should not be used on mild cases as conservative treatment methods are enough to aid the person in getting back to his sport(s).