When you are 300+ pounds and you are constantly running and then stopping, you jam your toes into your shoes *really* hard. I believe this was the cause of Shaq's problems too.
This thread more or less confirms the fact that Yao has become the scapegoat for the team's troubles this season. He plays through sickness, pain, and other injuries for 3 seasons...missing only 2 games from the flu, and only sitting out because the trainer asked him to do so. He gets surgery on his heel in the offseason, and he continues to train his stamina in the swimming pool and lifts weights in the gym. His toenail falls off in the preseason, and he continues to play. It gets infected (which btw, I'm sure hurts like hell because of the nerve endings in your toes), and he decides to take a few games off to let it heal. Shaq took damn near a quarter of a season off a few years ago because of a similar injury. Despite all of that, Yao's now a "p***y."
To get an appreciation of a toe pain problem, you guys ought to do a search for GOUT, a problem where you get crystalline formations in the big toe. Everyone that has the problem, says it is the most agonizing pain they have ever felt and prevents you from walking or running. I would think the big guy has been taking antibiotics and topical treatments to treat it and its not working, sounds like the only solution will be a lengthy rest. That was an ugly game in LA last night, only reason we won was the Lakers couldn't hit an outside shot to save their lives last night and their FT% was terrible as well. With Deke gone, JVG is fantasizing if he thinks he can win with a lineup of: 1 - DW 2 - Head 3 - T-Mac 4 - Juwan 5 - Swift Yao better get back quick otherwise I sense another losing streak developing.
poor yao. getting beat up and stepped on in the paint. 18 stitches 2 weeks ago..big sratch on his face..now a infected toe. his toe is probably like 3 inches.
It sounds like it's a staaph infection. Could potentially be serious if the antibiotics don't take immediately.
Thank you, Dr.... This sucks but the silver lining could be that the Rockets can run more instead of the halfcourt drop the ball to the post offense. I remember when Hakeem was out for an extended period of time (I think when Bill Cartright elbowed him in the eye) the Rockets went on a winning streak because they started running more. Not saying it's good that Yao is out, just that we should try and use it to our advantage.
Okay, fine, I'll post this. What's happening to Yao once happened to me, only on the other big toe. I had the nail on my left big toe become ingrown on me. I was in a boot camp, so I had to put in a medical request to have it looked at. By that time, my big toe had also become infected. They were forced to cut the whole nail off at this point. That involved them taking a huge freakin syringe full of anaesthetic to the whole area in a series of injections - two of which were made from the tip of the toe under the nail going in towards my heel on either side of the toe bone. Once they got everything "numbed up," they peeled my toenail off with a scalpel. As for the infected area underneath, they used some chemical swab thing to burn the area to a bubbly mess of flesh. Everything got wrapped up and treated with topical antibiotics and I was on my way. To severe pain and an inability to walk at all for days. It took over a year for the nail to be a real nail again. For at least 6 months it was nothing but a leathery calloused area. Then it got infected again. Simple antibiotics healed that, but I was without the ability to walk again until they took. The last thing on my mind was basketball.
We all know there are steal-toe work boots. Can Rebook design a special hard toe sports shoes for Yao? May be not steal-toe, but something hard to protect Yao’s toe a little better.
