Minor complications of the use of local anaesthetic to allow early return to play
| Injury | Complication |
|---|---|
| Posterior ankle impingement | Medial plantar nerve sensory block; player able to keep playing with numb sole of foot |
| Fractured 1st metacarpal | Slight malunion with loss of full thumb span (anticipated and expected by player) |
| Posterior rib fractures | Failed block; player could not take field for that game although successfully played with local anaesthetic the following week |
| Sternoclavicular joint sprain | Injury was worsened by a further contact mechanism injury; as a result the player needed to miss four games |
| Comminuted intra-articular fractured base of 1st proximal phalanx | Osteoarthritis of 1st metacarpophalangeal joint (that was eventually almost asymptomatic), a complication considered inevitable after the initial fracture but may have been worsened by playing for 6 weeks with thumb blocks. The injury could not be treated surgically and the alternative treatment was plaster immobilisation, which probably would not have prevented degenerative arthritis |
| Posterior ankle impingement | Player elected to have surgery to remove os trigonum after playing one game with the assistance of local injection |
| Bruised iliac crest (3) | Lateral femoral cutaneous nerve block (3) |
| Lateral ankle sprain | Pericapsular injection causing superficial peroneal nerve block; player was able to play with numb dorsum of foot |
| Chronic plantar fasciitis | Player ruptured his plantar fascia origin but was able to complete the game. He missed 2 weeks after this but believed that this complication “cured” his injury. |