Turf toe is a sports injury; it’s a sprain of the joint in your big toe. Mostly affecting football players, the injury happens when you overextend your toe joint. Often, this overextension occurs because your toe gets pushed forward too often.

Bend them, wiggle them, or call them your piggies. Either way, make sure to take care of your toes in the new year. They play a major supporting role in how you move around.

Hopefully you won’t be stubbing your toe anytime soon, but if you do, here are some signs of more serious injuries that you should keep an eye on.

Toes don’t have much fatty tissue to absorb a blow, plus they’re packed with nerve endings that send feedback to your central nervous system. This combination makes stubbed toes very painful.

There are two main reasons that work together to create a painful reaction when you stub your toe: