Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes’ toe injury reported as ‘turf toe’

Charles Goldman
·2 min read
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A footnote from the aftermath of the Kansas City Chiefs’ divisional-round win over the Cleveland Browns was a toe injury suffered by QB Patrick Mahomes. This happened prior to his exit from the game via the NFL’s concussion protocol. He’s spent the entire week of practice listed with the toe injury on the team’s injury report but carried no game status heading into the AFC title game. He still might not be 100%, though.

According to a report from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Mahomes has been diagnosed with “turf toe,” which is a fairly common football injury involving the plantar plate and ligaments in the big toe. Mahomes is dealing with this issue in his left foot, but it doesn’t appear to be as severe as it possibly could be. This can be a super painful injury and depending on the severity, it can even sideline players or require surgery.

According to Rapoport, the injury did “limit his effectiveness” during the practice week, but he also took almost all of the first-team practice repetitions for Kansas City. The Chiefs’ practices this week were on the lighter side in general as they tend to be this time of year. Rapoport described them as a “slew of walkthroughs.”

Rapoport says that Mahomes will be reevaluated in the offseason for surgery, but there isn’t a belief that the injury currently needs it. That’s a good sign, but these injuries can also flare up and intensify at any time. It’ll be worth monitoring during the game.

“It’s feeling a lot better,” Mahomes said of his toe on Friday. “I mean the next day it was very sore and then every single day since then it has gotten a lot better. It’s stuff you deal with being a football player, you deal with injures and luckily enough for me, this wasn’t as bad as it looked and felt the day of and the day after.”

Mahomes says the injury won’t be an issue and there’s a video from the practice week to support that theory.

Even if Mahomes is feeling the injury, he’s been effective while dealing with injuries to his lower body in the past. Mahomes suffered an ankle sprain in Week 1 of the 2019 season. The following week he played through the injury and threw for over 400 yards and four touchdowns.