Plaxico Burress Hopes Orthotics Relieve Pain In His Feet

Plaxico Burress will play in the New York Giants’ season opener against the Redskins, flat feet and all.

The wide receiver said yesterday that his last hurdle to playing at full speed is being made easier by the orthotics that have been built into his shoes to compensate for what he called “extremely flat feet.”

“The more I rest, the more I take care of my ankle, then I’ll be closer to 100 percent,” he said. “If I’m not 100, I’ll probably be 95, 96, which I’ll definitely take.”

Asked if that means he’ll be on the field for the Sept. 4 game, Burress said: “I will be.”

Burress half-practiced with the team yesterday, following a program he used Tuesday when he first suited up. He participated in individual drills and some route-running but sat out anything that involved a defensive player in front of him or full-speed running.

“We’re just taking it one day at a time,” he said. “Just trying to pretty much gauge where I’m at and go out and pretty much do the same that I did the other day.”

Burress went so far as to say that he is not injured, merely experiencing soreness.

“I can get out there and run around and do some things that I want to do,” he said. “It’s basically just soreness. It’s not what I had last year. I’m excited about turning the corner and getting healthy. The healthier I am, the more explosive I’m going to be.”

According to Craig Levitz, an orthopedist in Rockville Centre and a member of the MLB Panel of Physicians, the soreness Burress is experiencing from the orthotics should subside in another week or so. He said it usually takes about two weeks for someone to become used to the orthotics, to “break them in.”

Levitz said orthotics can reduce the risk of ankle sprains and other injuries in athletes with flat feet.

“It’s not a cure and it’s by no means a guarantee,” Levitz said. “But it’s not going to hurt him, other than the discomfort that goes away in about two weeks. At this point, they’ll probably want to try anything to keep him healthy.”

He said flat feet are very common among fast athletes - it’s part of what makes them fast - but it also puts them at high risk for ankle injuries. Because the foot is flat, any slight shift of weight puts excessive pressure on the joint.

Although correcting flat feet could reduce the speed of an Olympic sprinter, he said, the effect on a football player will be negligible.

Burress said he initially was resistant to the idea of using the orthotics.

“They’ve been telling me for a while to try them out,” he said. “I’ve just been running naturally for so long, I didn’t want to try them, but being what I went through last year, I thought it would be a good time to try them out.”

He said it’s difficult to wear the new shoes, both of which have the devices in them (so he doesn’t play uneven, he said).

“My feet are not in the same position they’ve been in for the first 30 years of my life,” Burress said. “It’s kind of putting them in a new position, and they’re not comfortable with it. They’re getting sore. It’s just about me getting used to them.”

Levitz said the biggest issue with orthotics is that patients are not compliant with them and discontinue use during the first two weeks of soreness. He also said Burress likely will have to wear the orthotics for the rest of his career.

Right now, that probably doesn’t sound very enticing to Burress, especially given that he was hesitant to use them in the first place and, as Levitz pointed out, there are no definitive studies that say orthotics reduce ankle injuries in flat-footed athletes. It’s just theory.

“If it’s too much,” Burress said of the soreness, “we’ll probably do something else.”

- Tom Rock, NY Newsday