US President-elect Joe Biden has a foot fracture and will likely have to wear a medical boot, his team said on Sunday after the 78-year-old was taken to the doctor because he had slipped while playing with his dog.
Biden, who will be the oldest American president after his oath in January, suffered the injury on Saturday with Major, one of his two German shepherds.
The president’s personal physician Kevin O’Connor initially said that X-rays had not detected any “obvious fracture”, but added that a further CT scan would still be done.
That scan “confirmed hairline (small) fractures … in the middle of the foot,” O’Connor said in a subsequent statement from Biden’s office.
He added that the former vice president, who won the election against Donald Trump in November, “is likely to require a walking boot for several weeks”.
With both Biden and Trump in the 1970s, age was a problem in the presidential race, although it often needed a back seat to push issues like the Covid-19 pandemic.
Trump’s health was short of intense concern when he captured Covid-19, but the president resumed the campaign after receiving a series of treatments – including an experimental antibody cocktail.
Trump, a famous naughty germophobe, was the first president in over a century not to have a dog.
Bidens has been raising and adopting Major since 2018, while Champ has been with the family since 2008.
Biden officials have said Major will be the first rescue dog to live in the White House.
(AFP)
