US president-elect Joe Biden has a foot fracture and will likely have to wear a medical boot, his team said Sunday after the 78-year-old was taken to the doctor because he had slipped while playing with his dog.
Biden, who will become the oldest US president upon his January swearing-in, suffered the injury Saturday with Major, one of his two German shepherds.
The president-elect’s personal physician Kevin O’Connor initially said x-rays had not uncovered any “obvious fracture”, but added that an additional CT scan would still be done.
That scan “confirmed hairline (small) fractures… in the mid-foot,” O’Connor said in a subsequent statement released by Biden’s office.
He added that the former vice president, who won election against Donald Trump in November, “will likely require a walking boot for several weeks”.
With both Biden and Trump in their 70s, age was an issue in the presidential race, even if it often took a backseat to pressing matters like the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Get well soon!” Trump said on Twitter, in a retweet of an NBC video showing Biden leaving an orthopedic office.
Trump’s health was briefly of intense concern when he caught Covid-19, but the president resumed campaigning after getting a series of treatments — including an experimental antibody cocktail.
