What Exactly Is A Lisfranc Injury, Anyway?

A displeased tipster wrote in today to ask why he was hearing so much about Lisfranc injuries. Maurice Jones-Drew was cleared today of having a Lisfranc injury. Santonio Holmes a Lisfranc injury. Cedric Benson too. Lisfranc, Lisfranc, Lisfranc. It was driving this reader nuts.

But he must not have known what a Lisfranc injury is, or looks like, because if he did, surely he wouldn't so blithely disrespect it. It is not a mere foot sprain.

The X-ray above depicts a Lisfranc fracture. Dear lord. All the midfoot bones are jumbled, thrown out of whack. They're supposed to cushion the metatarsals. Instead they all just clatter around, painfully. Some Lisfranc injuries are not so bad—the one depicted is a particularly severe case—but all are wretched.

Consider, for instance, the circumstances under which the injury was first observed:

Lisfranc injuries are named after Jacques Lisfranc, a French surgeon in the early 1800s. In the army, a lot of the soldiers would get thrown from their horses, and their foot would get caught in the stirrup.

That sounds pleasant. Any other ways to get a Lisfranc? Wikipedia?

Examples of this type of trauma include ... when a person falls forward after accidentally stepping into a storm drain.

Oh. Jesus. OK. Lisfrancs are bad. Really bad. Now we know.