Ligament · Foot

Dorsal metatarsal ligaments

Ligamenta metatarsalia dorsalia

Short transverse bands across the top of the foot joining the bases of neighbouring metatarsals. There are three of them — second to third, third to fourth, fourth to fifth — and the gap in that list is the interesting part: the base of the first metatarsal is joined to the second by no intermetatarsal ligament at all, dorsal, plantar or interosseous. The great toe's ray is held instead by its own joint with the medial cuneiform behind it, while the second metatarsal is tied back to that same cuneiform by the oblique interosseous band known as the Lisfranc ligament. The result is a first ray deliberately freer than the four rigid rays beside it, which is why the big toe can carry load on its own terms.