00:00Braxton Berrios, he underwent surgery to repair a Liz Frank injury in his foot.
00:03What exactly is the Liz Frank joint complex and why can damage to this area be so serious for an
00:09NFL player?
00:10This is a really critical injury, particularly for explosive athletes.
00:13You know, the foot has 28 bones and a lot of them are really small.
00:17And if I hold this little model up here, you can see right in the middle of your foot is
00:22this row of bones, really two rows towards the middle.
00:25And that's what really allows you to transmit all of that explosive force from your toes back through your ankle
00:31and up your leg.
00:32And the Liz Frank complex, it's known as the tarsometatarsal joint complex.
00:38It really allows that shape of the foot to be maintained as you explode and drive through off your toes.
00:46So it's really important for football players, particularly dynamic players.
00:49How optimistic should we in general, Giants fans, should be about Berrios getting back to his pre-injury form?
00:54And what would you need to see if you were treating him during his rehabilitation to feel confident that he
01:00can make a successful return in 2027?
01:02I would have pretty reasonable confidence.
01:03Some athletes never return to their prior form.
01:06But along the way, you know, we have a lot of fancy tools to evaluate athletes.
01:09We look at things called proprioception, which is their ability to have balance and coordination of their foot in space.
01:15And we compare it to their uninjured side.
01:17And once they've met a level where they're at their pre-injury threshold or similar to the other side, you
01:23know, then we kind of let them go and see what they can do.
01:25So, you know, again, I'm optimistic.
01:27I think we've come a long way with this injury.
01:29A lot of athletes do really well.
01:31And, you know, we'll have to see how he does.
01:32But I'm optimistic.
