Top of the foot pain

My son was playing soccer and all of a sudden could not put any pressure on his foot. The top of his foot was very tender, and it was swollen. Took him to the ER and they did an x-ray and nothing was broken. The doctor did not know what it was and claimed that maybe it could be a cyst. Do you have any ideas what could be causing this? He also said that it hurts to wiggle his toes.

Thanks.

ANSWER
Hi,
The fact that the top of the foot hurts when he wiggles his toes is highly suggestive of tendonitis, which is inflammation of a tendon, in this case the tendons on the top of the foot which bend his toes upwards.
Certainly, there is always the chance of a stress fracture from playing soccer and I would warn you that sometimes fractures of this sort do not show up on initial xray and either the xray has to be repeated in ten days or sometimes a bone scan has to be performed in order to see what amounts to a small fracture in the bone.
I would suggest you contact a foot specialist in your area to get an accurate diagnosis. A proper diagnosis needs to be made in order to institute appropriate treatment.

Marc Mitnick DPM
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