A verruca passes through three broad stages: a small pale spot that is easy to miss; an established, rough lump with black dots that hurts when squeezed; and a resolving stage in which it flattens, darkens, loses its dots and the skin lines return. The stages are the same whether it clears on its own or with treatment, but treatment can make the resolving stage look dramatic, with blistering, crusting or a small pit where the verruca was.
Key facts
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Stage 1: early | A small pale spot; skin lines start to bend around it; few or no black dots |
| Stage 2: established | Rough lump, 2 to 10 mm, black dots, hurts when squeezed |
| Stage 3: dying | Flattens, darkens, dots come away, skin lines return |
| Dying verruca hole | A shallow pit left behind; normal, heals in 1 to 2 weeks |
| How long each stage lasts | No fixed timetable; months to years, faster in children |
Stage 1: what does an early verruca look like?
In the first weeks a verruca is a small, smooth or slightly rough spot on the sole, often pale or skin-coloured and no bigger than a pinhead or a grain of rice. It can feel like a tiny stone under the skin before it is visible.
What to look for:
- A spot that is slightly raised or slightly sunk compared with the skin around it.
- A surface that is a little rougher than the surrounding skin when you run a finger over it.
- Skin lines that are starting to bend around it rather than run across it. This is the earliest reliable sign.
- No black dots yet, or only one or two.
Early verrucas are mistaken for hard skin, a splinter or a corn. If it is on a weight-bearing area, you may notice the discomfort before you notice the spot.
This is the easiest stage to treat and the stage at which home treatment with salicylic acid works best, because there is little hard skin over it and the virus has not spread widely.
Stage 2: what does an established verruca look like?
Over weeks to months the verruca grows outwards and inwards. A typical established verruca is:
- Two to ten millimetres across, round or oval, with a rough, slightly cauliflower-like surface.
- Paler or yellower than the surrounding skin, often with a ring of hard skin around it as the foot builds callus over the pressure point.
- Marked with tiny black or dark red dots. These are small blood vessels that have grown into the verruca and clotted. They are the single most reliable sign of a verruca and are the thing that separates it from a corn.
- Painful when squeezed from the sides. Pressing straight down tends to hurt less.
- Surrounded by skin lines that clearly detour around it.
An established verruca may stay this way for months or years. It can spread: small “satellite” verrucas appear nearby, or several merge into a mosaic verruca, a flat patch of many small verrucas that is harder to treat than a single one.
This is the stage most people are at when they seek treatment. Home treatments still work but take longer, usually eight to twelve weeks of daily application, because the hard skin over the verruca has to be worn down first. A podiatrist can pare the hard skin away, which is why clinic treatment often works faster.
Stage 3: what does a dying verruca look like?
A verruca resolves when the immune system recognises the virus and clears the infected skin, or when treatment destroys enough of the infected tissue for the immune system to finish the job. The signs are the same either way:
- It flattens. The lump sinks back towards the level of the surrounding skin.
- It darkens. The surface may turn brown, grey or black as the blood vessels inside it clot and die. After freezing or acid this can be sudden and alarming; it is a good sign.
- The black dots come away. They may lift out as tiny scabs or simply fade.
- It stops hurting. Often the first thing people notice.
- The skin lines return. When the fine lines on the sole run across the area again, the verruca has gone.
- It may leave a pit. Sometimes the verruca lifts out as a plug, leaving a shallow hole a few millimetres deep. This is the “dying verruca hole” people search for. It is normal, heals within a week or two, and needs nothing more than keeping it clean and covered.
Resolution often happens in a cluster: once one verruca starts to go, the others follow within weeks, because the immune response is to the virus rather than to one spot.
How do you know verruca treatment is working?
After salicylic acid (the usual home treatment): the surface turns white and soft, then peels. Over weeks the verruca gets smaller and flatter and the black dots become harder to see. Expect eight to twelve weeks of daily use.
After freezing (cryotherapy): a blister, sometimes blood-filled, within a day or two, which dries into a dark scab over about a week. When the scab comes away the verruca is often smaller or gone. Two or three sessions a few weeks apart are typical.
After needling or microwave treatment (podiatry clinic): often no visible change for two to four weeks, then the verruca darkens, flattens and resolves over one to three months. These treatments work by provoking the immune system rather than by destroying the verruca directly, so patience is the rule.
Our guide to how to get rid of a verruca compares every option.
When should you worry about a lump on your foot?
See a podiatrist or GP if the lump:
- Bleeds without being picked or knocked.
- Grows quickly, or grows larger than about a centimetre.
- Changes colour unevenly, or has an irregular edge.
- Does not have the features above and does not respond to treatment after twelve weeks.
- Appears in someone with diabetes, poor circulation or a weakened immune system.
Almost all lumps on the sole are verrucas, corns or hard skin, but a few are not, and a podiatrist can tell in seconds. Our guide to verruca or corn explains how to tell them apart.
What should you do at each stage?
If your verruca is at stage 1, treat it now with a pharmacy salicylic acid product unless you have diabetes or circulation problems. If it is at stage 2 and has been for months, a podiatrist will clear it faster than home treatment. If it is at stage 3, keep it clean, keep it covered for swimming, and leave it alone. Use the listings on verrucatreatment.co.uk to find a podiatrist near you; 799 of the clinics listed say they treat verrucas, and published starting prices for a treatment session are typically £50 (checked October 2026).
Sources
- NHS: Warts and verrucas
- Royal College of Podiatry: Verrucae
- British Association of Dermatologists: Plantar warts patient information