Krasner's lemma states that if is complete, is separable over , and an algebraic element satisfies
for every other -conjugate of , then .
Let be nonconstant and let be a root in an algebraic closure of . Because the characteristic is zero, replace by the separable minimal polynomial of . Approximate its coefficients arbitrarily closely by elements of . By continuity of roots over a non-Archimedean field, the approximating polynomial has a root arbitrarily close to . Since is algebraically closed, .
Choose the approximation so that is closer to than every other -conjugate of . Krasner's lemma gives
so . Hence completion of an algebraic closure of a p-adic field is algebraically closed proves that is algebraically closed.