Help with Border Collie licking at sores on paws

My border collie was hit by a car a couple months back and thankfully his bones and wounds have healed up nicely since the surgery. Though it took him some time to be able to walk again and even longer to move his tail due to nerve damage. However because of it his back paws knuckle whenever he walks. Our vet told us to just let him stand with paws in the correct position to help get him to walk properly.
Course i’d love to get him back to walking without his back paws knuckling, currently we need some way to bandage his feet up without him chewing at it and licking it when he removes the bandages. We have tried dog boots as that is what our vet recommended to prevent sores and that worked out until he started tearing them apart along with everything we put on his feet. I’ve tried bitter apple spray but it only helps for a while. We did have an e-collar thought my dad has gotten rid of it. He also needs a long one that keeps him away from the paws, there’s also the factor we want to avoid having him use it again. At the same time, i’m not sure what else we can do.