Rooney’s Metatarsals

The dreaded metatarsal curse has struck some of the Premiership's top footballers in recent years. Manchester United's Wayne Rooney is the latest victim, fracturing the base of his fourth metatarsal and giving England a major injury problem ahead of the World Cup.

You will need:

• Thin sliced white bread
• Butter or margarine
• Cheese spread, marmite or jam
• Almonds
• Strawberry or raspberry jam or tomato ketchup
• A knife
• Plate

What to do:

1. Cut all the crusts off the bread
2. Flatten the bread slightly with a rolling pin to make it more pliable
3. Spread a slice of bread with the filling of your choice.
4. Roll it up like a Swiss roll.
5. Cut the roll in half to make a ‘toe’. Use the blade of the knife to make three indentations across the ‘toe’ to make joints.
6. Arrange on a plate and add an almond to the tip fixed with a bit of spread as a toenail.  Alternatively use slivers of carrot, tomato or cucumber.

What’s going on?

Metatarsals are the five long bones in the forefoot which connect the ankle bones to those of the toes.  The first is linked to the big toe and the fifth, on the outer foot, links to the little toe. The five metatarsals act as a unit to help share the load of the body, and they move position to cope with uneven ground. Injuries usually occur as a result of a direct blow onto the foot, a twisting injury or over-use.

Young bones heal quicker so Rooney could benefit from his age. One factor that should also help is that his broken bone is one of the three inner metatarsals. This means that his fourth metatarsal will be helped by the 'splint effect' of the bones on either side.

It shouldn't be all doom and gloom for the Manchester United striker. Preston's David Nugent broke his fifth metatarsal in March and has just returned to action after being sidelined for just six weeks. His remedy? Drink plenty of milk.

If you want to know more about this injury and whether Rooney might be fit in time then click here.

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Why is 6 scared of 7?  ‘Cos 7 ate 9!  Don’t you just love numbers?

You probably slept through it, but for just one second on Thursday morning there was a special moment. At two minutes and three seconds after 1am on 4 May 2006, the time all lined up in order and on a digital clock read: 01:02:03 on 04/05/06!

The strange sequence is really unusual, with nothing like it for another 72 years. In the early hours of 5 June 2078 it'll be 02:03:04 on 05/06/78!

Another one-off time occurred in 1989, when clock-watchers enjoyed 01:23:45 on 6/7/89!

And soon there'll be the supposedly unlucky 6 June, which will be 06/06/06. So is anyone going to be 6 on the 6 June 2006?  Let us know! But were they born at six minutes past six in the morning?  Now steady on – that’s just being silly…

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