Good Morning Britain host Ben Shephard revealed on Thursday’s programme he is wearing a leg brace after suffering a horrific injury while playing sport.
Ben admitted he had ruptured his ACL, torn his meniscus and fractured his leg during a football match, but had not realised the extent of the injury and so carried on playing.
He explained he had severed the nerves, which is why he could not feel the full extent of the damage.
Opening the show, his co host Susanna Reid told him: “I wish I had taken a photograph in my dressing room this morning, because Ben came in with quite the get up on your leg.”
“Quite the outfit, yep,” said Ben.
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“You had a sort of holding device?” Susanna said.
“A brace,” confirmed Ben.
“I have.a few weeks to go, you may remember I played in the Cup Final of the Arthur Dunn veterans cup, my old boys team.
“We won the Cup Final, but I started with two legs and ended with one.
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“Without realising, I have ruptured my ACL, I’ve torn the meniscus and I’ve fractured part of my leg as well.”
Dr Hilary Jones remarked: “That’s a nasty injury, that is a nasty injury.”
“Did you prescribe the brace?” asked Susanna.
“No, but I approved of it! It’s not a great look, let’s be honest,” laughed Dr Hilary.
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Ben chuckled: “It looks a bit Robocop-esque, interestingly I didn’t realise I had done it quite so badly, I carried on playing for 25-minutes before I thought, ‘It feels a little bit unstable, perhaps I should stop’.
“It turns out I had severed all the nerves which is why I couldn’t feel any pain, and just carried on playing.”
Dr Hilary cut in: “Basically, this is the ligament that holds the lower leg on to the upper leg, so it’s very dramatic!”
Ben replied: “It was flapping about a bit! The sad thing is it didn’t affect my standard of football!”
* Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV at 6am