Lawrence Okoye, a former NFL defensive tackle and recent British Olympian, has shared a horrifying TikTok clip of the skin on his legs, which dimpled when pressed.
“THIS IS NASTY,” the football player wrote on the clip, which has been viewed some 8.5 million times since it was first posted in December. Upon pushing his finger into his leg, the skin visibly depressed and remained dimpled for several seconds after making the impression.
Viewers in the comments rushed to diagnose the 31-year-old and even crack a few jokes, assuming that the dimpling was caused by “fluid retention” and “pitting edema.”
“Bro turned into memory foam,” one user quipped. “Bro can play connect the dots anywhere,” another joked,
Turns out, the track and field star had a skin infection called cellulitis, he revealed in a subsequent TikTok video. The infection developed after he “smashed up” his leg during an injury that occurred a few weeks prior, Okoye explained.
Skin that looks red and swollen or is painful, warm and tender to the touch is a sign of the infection, along with “pitted” skin, “like the peel of an orange.” The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages those with symptoms to seek medical treatment immediately, especially if patients develop chills and a fever.
Cured with antibiotics, the common infection can become life-threatening if left untreated.
If symptoms are ignored, the bacteria can cause blood and bone infections, septic arthritis and endocarditis, an infection of the heart’s inner lining, per the CDC. In more serious cases, it can lead to full-blown sepsis, which could be fatal or require amputation of the affected limb.
“A ton of people were trying to tell me I had heart disease or liver disease, kidney disease, cancer and diabetes but obviously that’s not the case,” Okoye said in the second TikTok video with over 460,000 views.
“Those crazy holes that were in my leg no longer exist,” he added.
Okoye, who once played for the 49ers, Jets, Dolphins, Cowboys and Cardinals, opted for the NFL after his Olympic stint, and eventually returned to team Great Britain, nearly a decade after his American football aspirations expired.
His brief time at the Tokyo Olympics ended with a loss. However, he brought home silver in the discus at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year.