French professional footballer Kylian Mbappe was forced off the pitch with a broken nose in Monday night’s Euro 2024 tournament.
The footballer who plays as a forward for La Liga club Real Madrid and captains the France national team, was left with the brutal injury after colliding with Austria defender Kevin Danso.
But the 25-year-old is said to not need surgery despite medics initially believing he could be sidelined for at least ten days after the accident in the Austria-France match in Dusseldorf.
‘Ultimately if he can breathe it is not a functional injury,’ London-based NHS plastics surgeon Mark Mikhail told MailOnline.
Although Mbappe may not need immediate surgery to fix facial trauma, any cosmetic changes still need to be made within three weeks of a broken nose, he stresses — otherwise the nose can ‘set’ into its new position, giving an undesirable cosmetic result.
Dr Mikhail suggests Mbappe’s nose may have already been ‘nudged’ back into place shortly after the match, meaning he won’t need to have surgery straight away.
‘When a break is really fresh like that, because he is playing football and there is loads of adrenaline, they may have had enough mobility to nudged his nose back in place,’ he said.
‘The surgery for a broken nose is often just done a few days later with local anaesthetic, rather than full blown surgery and they just nudge it back into place,’ he added.
Journalist Julien Laurens reported in the early hours of Tuesday morning that Mbappe will not require surgery on his nose.
Click here to resize this module
French outlet L’Equipe also went onto claim that he left a hospital in Dusseldorf late on Monday evening after undergoing various tests and diagnosis.
The French Football Federation (FFF) revealed the tests were reassuring and there was no need for surgery.
However, they did confirm the Les Blues captain had suffered a broken nose.
The footballer returned to France’s team hotel where he is set to be monitored closely over next few days by medical staff.
In a statement, the FFF said: ‘Kylian Mbappe returns to the base camp of the French national team.
‘Kylian Mbappe suffered a broken nose during the second part of the Austria-France held this Monday in Dusseldorf.
‘The captain of France was treated first by the medical staff and Dr. Franck Le Gall, who diagnosed him with a nose fracture.
‘Mbappe will receive treatment in the next few days, but he will not undergo surgery in the immediate future.
‘A mask will be made for him so that the number 10 of the French national team can prepare for his return to the competition after a period dedicated to treatment.’
The NHS advises most people to avoid playing sports for at least six weeks if there is a chance your face could be hit.
However, sportspeople may chose to wear a specialised plastic face and nose guard to allow them to return to the field, pitch or court sooner, while reducing the risk of further injury, explains Dr Mikhail.
‘If the nasal bones are broken, then it will obviously be fragile. Even if the bone is sat in the right place you want to keep it there, so you will want to protect it from further injury,’ Dr Mikhail said.
‘[A mask] is slightly different to a post operative splint, which is trying to hold it in place, instead this would just try and protect the nose,’ he added.
In most cases surgery doesn’t happen immediately after a break because the face is very swollen.
‘You generally wait for the swelling to settle down before assessing it and seeing if anything needs to be done,’ Dr Mikhail said.
‘After the swelling has died down you can also work out whether there is a breathing problem or a deviation that will have a significant cosmetic outcome.’
He stressed that surgery is only needed if the break causes breathing difficulties, cosmetic problems or a nasal septal hematoma, when blood collects in the area of your nose between your nostrils, called the septum.
Dr Mikhail said you can spot this if ‘you look up the nose and there is blood that looks like little swollen grapes in the nose’, he explains that this blood would need to be drained.
Most of the time broke noses can actually heal on their own within three week, the NHS says.
‘The latest you would want to do surgery to move the nose is two weeks otherwise it gets really stiff.
‘But typically broken bones take six weeks to fully heal, when they have returned to 80 or 90 per cent of their strength,’ said Dr Mikhail.
But if you break your nose you should still seek medical attention that day.
That’s because medics need to asses for a septal hematoma and concussion because a broken nose is also a head trauma.
A patient can expect to be sent home after an assessment before they are assessed again in five days where a decision will be made if they need surgery, explains Dr Mikhail.
He stresses that before you seek medical attention you can use ice to control the swelling, pinch the bridge of your nose to control the bleeding, but you must never blow your nose.
This is just in case there has been an orbital floor fracture as blowing your nose could blow air through that fracture and cause major eye problems.