Pujols and the Plantar Plate

As all of you baseball fans have heard by now, the LA Angels slugger Albert Pujols has recently had foot surgery which will keep him from training for 4.5 months. The part of his foot that is injured is called the “plantar plate”. It is a tiny ligament on the bottom of his second toe joint that can get injured during any sort of push off from the ball of your foot (ie swinging for the fences). At its thickest portion, it only measures 3mm. It’s a testament to his skill and athletic prowess that he could hit 40 home runs with a torn ligament– imagine what next year will bring when he’s 100%.