Turf-toe: a shoe-surface related football injury.

Plantar capsule-ligament sprain of the great toe metatarsophalangeal joint, herein referred to as "turf-toe," is discussed with emphasis on two apparantly predisposing factors, playing surface hardness and shoe stiffness. Surface hardness studies have previously been performed by the authors on natural grass and AstroTurf. A study of football shoe flexibility is presented and the results correlated with the occurrence of turftoe. We have not encountered this entity in players wearing relatively stiff conventional seven posted football shoes or the more flexible soccer style shoe on natural grass fields. We have found it to be a not uncommon injury among players wearning the soccer style shoe on AstroTurf.