return to work · last reviewed 2026-06-24
Return to work after Morton's neuroma surgery
Clinical procedure: Morton's neuroma excision.
Typical, evidence-anchored estimate only. It is not medical advice, not a prediction for your body, and not a substitute for your surgeon or clinician.
Every number on this page comes from a published study of real patients and links to its source. Return-to-work timing varies widely with the kind of job, the cohort studied, and the person — treat the figures as orientation, not clearance.
When you actually return is a decision made with your surgeon and, where relevant, occupational health. The data below describes cohorts, not your case.
what the studies document
Back to work
Desk work returns sooner than time on your feet
UK guidance puts time off work at roughly two to four weeks for sedentary roles and four to six weeks for jobs spent on your feet, with heavy manual work longer. A top-of-foot incision tends to return people to work sooner than a sole incision.
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People who play sport reported outcomes on par with the rest
In a prospective two-year study of plantar-incision neurectomy, 86 percent of all patients rated their overall result excellent or good, and among those engaged in sports the figure was 93 percent. Being active did not track with a worse self-rated outcome in this group.
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Fashionable shoes stay restricted long after the foot settles
In a neurectomy cohort followed about 4.6 years, 71 percent still had trouble wearing fashionable shoes even though they were happy with the surgery, and only 29 percent had no footwear restriction at all. Shoe comfort and pain relief moved on separate timelines.
sources
What this page is built from
- Treating Morton's neuroma by injection, neurolysis, or neurectomy: systematic review and meta-analysis (35 studies, 2,998 patients), Acta Neurochirurgica 2021 meta-analysis · reliability 9/10
- Outcomes following excision of Morton's interdigital neuroma: prospective cohort (99 patients / 111 feet), Bone and Joint Journal 2016 prospective cohort · reliability 8/10
- Kasparek and Schneider, surgical treatment of Morton's neuroma: clinical results after open excision (98 feet, 15.3-yr follow-up), 2013 retrospective cohort · reliability 7.5/10
- Reichert et al., long-term results of neurectomy through a dorsal approach: VAS 7.04 pre-op to 1.4 (n=41), 2016 retrospective cohort · reliability 7/10
- NHS Lothian patient protocol: Morton's neuroma excision surgery (recovery timeline) clinical protocol · reliability 7/10
Track your own week-by-week so a flare doesn't erase the months behind it.
Start a recovery logThis page reflects published cohort data on morton's neuroma surgery recovery — not medical advice, not a prediction for your body, and not a substitute for your surgeon or clinician.