SYLVESTER Stallone has warned fellow Hollywood action stars not to do their own stunts after revealing an injury left him in pain for 14 years.
The Rocky and Rambo actor, 77, has just had his seventh back operation — and joked his next role would have to be The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
In the new series of his US reality show The Family Stallone, Sly recalled fracturing his neck as he was body slammed by wrestler “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in the first Expendables movie in 2010.
Sly said of the stunt: “I did stupid stuff. I was directing Expendables and like an idiot I’m doing take ten, take whatever, and I remember one slam and I could actually feel one ‘bang’.
“Steve knew. I never recovered from Expendables 1.
“After that film, it was never physically the same.
“I’ve warned people — don’t do your own stunts.”
Sly needed a metal plate inserted into his neck following his fight scene with Austin in the action movie.
The veteran actor has also had spinal fusions and treatment for dislocated shoulders.
For one of his earliest ops, he found himself in the adjacent hospital bed to fellow muscle-bound action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger, who also appeared in The Expendables series.
They had their picture taken as they were both about to go under the knife in 2012.
Terminator star Arnie, 76, was having a shoulder op and the duo went on to star together in explosive thriller Escape Plan a year later.
Sly’s surgeon has now warned him he may need to have “artificial discs” fitted in the lower part of his spine at some point in the future.
Wife Jennifer Flavin, 55, admits she fears for his life every time he has surgery.
She says: “Sly tries to mask the pain, pretending like it didn’t happen. He doesn’t like people to know he’s had so many back surgeries.
“It’s very scary for our family every time Sly has to go through surgery, because you never know . . . no one knows.”
And youngest daughter Scarlett, 21, even reveals she has never known her father not to be in pain.
She adds: “It’s really hard to see my father go through yet another painful operation.
“My whole childhood, he’s been in pain. He did everything he could to push through the pain and be present but I couldn’t imagine every waking moment you are just hurting.”
But Sly made light of his back, quipping: “If they ever need a remake of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I’m ready.”
He actually played deformed bell-ringer Quasimodo in a 1969 University of Miami stage production of Hunchback — seven years before he shot to fame in his role as boxer Rocky Balboa.
Sly co-wrote, directed and played the lead role in The Expendables, which also featured his 1985 Rocky IV screen foe Dolph Lundgren, British film hardman Jason Statham and cage fighter Randy Couture.
