CELEBRITY SAS: Who Dares Wins recruit Shannon Courtenay needed two operations after taking part in the show – with bosses telling her she should have quit.
The professional boxer, 29, sustained the injuries in the ring before filming but hid her agony from the ex- special forces staff.
“I didn’t tell anyone, any of the producers, but I went in with a ruptured ACL and a torn meniscus. So I wore a strap on my knee under my trousers that no one knew about,” she told The Sun.
“I had to have two operations since the show but I was in agony the whole time I was filming.
“I told the producers I had a niggle in my knee. I never told them what the problem was.
“It wasn’t until after the show they actually asked me and then obviously I had the operations and they were like ‘you idiot why did you do the show with that wrong with your leg’.
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“They said to me you should have not done the show.”
She said despite feeling “so broken” and “like a zombie” she refused to think about quitting.
In the first two episodes viewers have seen the recruits jumping out of helicopters, free falling from cliffs and being ordered to batter each other in the Jordanian desert.
The latter was the one task that Shannon refused to take part in.
The former bantamweight champ, who has racked up nine professional wins, made a promise to herself before the show that she wouldn’t use her fists in the milling task.
She was true to her word after picking out reality TV veteran Calum, 41.
Shannon literally took it on the chin without giving any back as Calum reluctantly dished out shots.
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Speaking after the show launch, she said: “As for the milling I said from day one if I had to do that task I wasn’t going to hit anybody and I stuck to my guns and I’m so glad I did.
“You know this whole SAS show it’s a marathon, not a sprint, so you know the first two tasks I didn’t do great in but tune in next week to see how I get on.”
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins continues on Sunday at 9pm on Channel 4.
