Lane Johnson #65 of the Philadelphia Eagles is seen here with Fred Johnson #74, Tyler Steen #56, Cam Jurgens #51, Saquon Barkley #26, Landon Dickerson #69, and Jordan Mailata #68 during their game against the Detroit Lions at Lincoln Financial Field on November 16, 2025 in Philadelphia, United States. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
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The word “Lisfranc” may sound like someone saying “listen Frank” very quickly. But Lisfranc injury the name of the foot injury suffered by Philadelphia Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson on Sunday night. And Lisfranc-ly, you may have suspected something was afoot when the six-time Pro Bowler Johnson left the game against the Detroit Lions in the first quarter and never returned to what would eventually be a 16-9 victory for the Eagles.
A Lisfranc injury is any type of damage to your Lisfranc joint. That may be self-explanatory if you happen to know where the Lisfranc joint is located. The Lisfranc joint is where the metatarsal bones of your foot connect to the tarsals. You can see these bones in the following diagram of the inside of your foot:
The foot has 26 bones, including 14 phalanges, 7 tarsal bones (talus, calcaneus, cuboid, navicular, and 3 cuneiforms) and 5 metatarsals. (Illustration; Getty)
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Different kinds of Lisfranc injuries are possible. You can have a tear in any of the ligaments that span the Lisfranc joint, which is called a Lisfranc sprain. You can have a break in the parts of the tarsal or metarsal bones that form the joint, known as a Lisfranc fracture. And you can have one or more of the bones forming the Lisfranc get dislocated or knocked out of place. Take a wild guess as to what this type of dislocation is called. Yep, it’s a Lisfranc dislocation.
A Lisfranc injury can result when you’re on the ball—on the ball of your foot, that is—when a twist happens. In other words, you’ve got the ball of your foot firmly planted on the ground and then your entire foot gets twisted. That, in turn, can put a lot of force and stress on your mid-foot, basically to the Lisfranc joint.
Such a motion can happen when you have your foot flexed downwards, ready to push off the ball of your foot to run towards the end zone, the bathroom or wherever when someone else lands on the back of your foot. This can also happen when you fall say from a ladder or make some kind of a misstep and then land on the ball of your foot while the rest of your foot twists, grinding into your midfoot where again the Lisfranc joint is located. Another way of hurting your Lisfranc joint is when your foot gets crushed by something falling or pushing into it.
The main symptom of a Lisfranc injury is pain around, you guessed it, your Lisfranc joint. This is typically around the top of your foot in the mid-foot area. Trying to push off the foot such as when you stand or walk can worsen the pain. The pain can be so severe that you can’t bear weight on that area. You may get swelling and bruising there too. These can extend to the bottom of the foot as well.
A doctor may suspect a Lisfranc injury when pressing on the area reveals tenderness. Your doctor can also try the "piano key" test, which when he or she grabs your toes and moves them up and down to see if that elicits pain. There’s also the single limb heel rise, where you stand on one foot and go up to your tippy toes and see if that causes pain. Imaging like an x-ray, a CT or an MRI of your foot may show damage like a fracture, ligament tear or dislocation.
The treatment of a Lisfranc injury depends on what exactly is damaged and the severity. Milder injuries may just get better with RICE, that’s rest rest, ice, compression and elevation. More severe injuries that still did not result in a fracture or dislocation of the bones may require your to stay non-weightbearng for a while to heal. This can be achieved by wearing a cast or boot for about six to eight weeks. The next step would be to transition to to bearing weight whiel weraing a removable cast boot or an orthotic.
Any fracture or dislocation of the bones that won’t heal in place on its own would necessitate surgery to move things back in place. This could be an open reduction internal fixation or ORIF surgery or even fusing the mid-foot together. If this is the case, it could take six months to a year of recovery before returning to normal activities. Even after healing from surgery, you could end up with arthritis from damage to the cartilage.
If Johnson doesn’t need surgery, then the 35-year-old two-time first-team All-Pro should be able to return to the field sometime later this season. In the meantime, the Eagles replaced one of the Johnsons with another Johnson, Fred Johnson.