Can a professional footballer play with a fractured leg?<\/p>\n
Following Sunday’s Euro 2025 final win over Spain, England defender Lucy Bronze revealed she had done just that, saying: \u00ab\u00a0I actually played the whole tournament with a fractured tibia, but no-one knew.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Mum Diane Bronze said the Chelsea full-back suffered the injury in June but she still started all six of the Lionesses’ games in Switzerland and was a key reason for their success.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We’ve known all the time. We knew the medics had checked it, and they knew what they were doing,\u00a0\u00bb Diane Bronze told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I think a lot of the girls knew and not a whisper got out.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Dr Mark Bowditch, President of the British Orthopaedic Association told BBC Sport that a tibia is, \u00ab\u00a0the shin bone and the main weight bearing bone from the knee to the ankle\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Fractures of the tibia range from partial break, such as a stress or fatigue split, through to a complete break and separation,\u00a0\u00bb the consultant knee and sports surgeon added.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0A complete break is the high-energy sudden injury from a fall from a height, twist or direct blow, such as a studs-up tackle. You cannot continue to play on or even walk on a complete break.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Stress\/fatigue fractures – which is likely to be the type Lucy Bronze has – are low-energy repeated injury and usually seen in athletes or army personnel.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0They normally present with pain after activity, rather than a sudden incident.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Following Sunday’s final, England manager Sarina Wiegman said that Bronze, \u00ab\u00a0had some issues with her tibia so of course we tried to manage that\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
Nick Worth, who was England men’s under-21 team physiotherapist between 2000-2003, told BBC Sport that Wiegman’s comments further corroborate the view that the defender’s injury was a stress reaction, rather than a clean break.<\/p>\n
But BBC Sport do not yet know the full extent of the injury.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old played 598 minutes across the tournament, with only Keira Walsh, Alex Greenwood and Hannah Hampton playing more for Wiegman’s side.<\/p>\n
Dr Bowditch called it, \u00ab\u00a0remarkable\u00a0\u00bb Bronze was able to play so much tournament football.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0She probably has had to reduce the amount of training she has done in between games or train in a low weight-bearing environment such as a swimming pool or anti-gravity trainer,\u00a0\u00bb he suggested.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It’s a great tribute to Dr Ritan Mehta and Lionesses medical team that they have managed to keep Lucy going.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Worth believes that Bronze’s decision to play through her injury would have been based on a calculation of risk vs reward, made in collaboration with the Lionesses’ medical team.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0No doubt she’s been exceptionally brave, you can’t underestimate the mentality and resilience to do that,\u00a0\u00bb he added. \u00ab\u00a0But it must be a manageable injury to enable her to do that.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Bronze’s aunt, Julie Tough, told BBC 5 Live: \u00ab\u00a0Lucy wouldn’t damage her body but she’ll play through pain if she thinks she’s not going to do anything worse to it.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0She’ll not let the pain get in the way.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Painkillers and anti-inflammatories may have helped Bronze manage her pain during games, as well as perhaps using different insoles in her boots to enable her to offload weight on the injured leg.<\/p>\n
Bronze’s mum Diane added: \u00ab\u00a0The medics had checked it and they knew what they were doing, and so does she because she did a sports science degree.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0She reads research papers and things. She knows about injuries. That’s how she can keep going.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
The defender, who was England’s oldest player at the tournament, managed 105 minutes in Sunday’s showpiece final, before leaving the pitch in tears as she was forced off with a separate injury to her right knee.<\/p>\n
Wiegman praised her attitude afterwards, saying: \u00ab\u00a0The whole team has a great mentality but she has a crazy mentality, it’s unbelievable.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Worth told BBC Sport that pain is experienced subjectively.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0What Lucy has shown is that bit extra – she’s an exceptional individual, and not everyone would do that,\u00a0\u00bb he said.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0She knows her own body, and I have no doubt she would speak up if something isn’t right.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
During the quarter-final against Sweden, Bronze was shown on camera self-strapping support around her right leg during a break in play. Worth suggested that this is unlikely to be related to her fractured tibia.<\/p>\n
It is difficult to say, without knowing the full extent of the injury.<\/p>\n
Dr Bowditch told BBC Sport that the worst thing that could have happened was that, \u00ab\u00a0the partial break progressed into a full break and the bone effectively snapped.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0This fortunately hasn’t happened,\u00a0\u00bb he said. \u00ab\u00a0It may need a prolonged time off to allow it to heal itself or she may need surgery to try to help the bone heal properly\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Worth suggested that Bronze should hopefully not face any long-term consequences after playing during the tournament, and the most important thing now will be rest.<\/p>\n
While she will need to offload the tibia a little bit, Bronze should be able to continue with work in the gym and the pool, and that weight-bearing can help the healing.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Bones heal in the lines of stress, so in a converse way, putting weight on a fracture at the right time can help with healing.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
This article is the latest from BBC Sport’s Ask Me Anything team.<\/p>\n
Ask Me Anything is a service dedicated to answering your questions.<\/p>\n
We want to reward your time by telling you things you do not know and reminding you of things you do.<\/p>\n
The team will find out everything you need to know and be able to call upon a network of contacts including our experts and pundits.<\/p>\n
We will be answering your questions from the heart of the BBC Sport newsroom, and going behind the scenes at some of the world’s biggest sporting events.<\/p>\n
Our coverage will span the BBC Sport website, app, social media and YouTube accounts, plus BBC TV and radio.<\/p>\n
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Can a professional footballer play with a fractured leg? Following Sunday’s Euro 2025 final win over Spain, England defender Lucy Bronze revealed she had done just that, saying: \u00ab\u00a0I actually played the whole tournament with a fractured tibia, but no-one knew.\u00a0\u00bb Mum Diane Bronze said the Chelsea full-back suffered the injury in June but she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}