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Athlete Shares Rare Symptom Where His Leg Looks Like It's "Made Out Of Playdough"

"Looks like a normal leg, right? Watch this."

James Felton

James Felton

James Felton

James Felton

Senior Staff Writer

James is a published author with four pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.

Senior Staff Writer

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Lawrence Okoye, about to throw a discus.

Okoye is the British record holder for discus. Image credit: Raffaele Conti 88/shutterstock.com

British Olympic athlete and former American footballer Lawrence Okoye went on TikTok recently to show his followers an interesting but "nasty" symptom he'd developed.

In the video, he teased, "Looks like a normal leg, right? Watch this," then pressed down on his leg with his thumb, leaving indents that remained for the remainder of the video. 

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"It's like I'm made out of playdough," he added.

TikTok users of course attempted to diagnose Okoye, with some telling him that he had heart or liver disease. A few weeks later, he updated his followers with what was going on.

"Basically, it's this thing called cellulitis," he said in a video update.

"I had a leg injury a few days ago and the wound got infected with bacteria, which causes redness, swelling, and that pitted edema that you saw, which was me basically making craters in my leg."

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Cellulitis is generally not serious, but can spread to the blood, muscles, heart and bones if left untreated. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises that you should "seek medical attention immediately if the red area of the skin spreads quickly or you develop a fever or chills".

Okoye was given a week's course of antibiotics, and his leg quickly improved.


healthHealth and Medicine
  • tag
  • cellulitis,

  • Athletics,

  • athlete,

  • bacterial infection,

  • TikTok