John Barrowman has said he was “on his knees in tears” after he ruptured the vertebrae in his neck.
The TV star said the pain was so bad he could not open his jaw to sing, before he was taken to hospital after he hurt himself performing a dance move.
He told ITV’s This Morning: “I was doing a TV appearance a couple of days ago and they asked me to come on and do this dance move, which I did, and my brain thought I was 20 years old again, and I did some kind of a drop.
“And when I fell down on the ground I ruptured my C5 and C6 vertebrae, which then ruptured the facet joint. I’ve got to get the technical terms right.
“So it caused a severe amount of pain, to the point that when I was in rehearsals it started getting worse and worse, and by the end of rehearsal the other day I literally was on my knees in agony.
“I couldn’t sing because I couldn’t extend my jaw to sing, and so the pain was so bad. I was literally on my knees in tears and had to be taken to the hospital to have it all checked out.”
He added: “It was kind of frightening and I didn’t know what was going to happen.
“And at one point my husband Scott was trying to make a little bit of a joke of it, to make me feel better, and I just looked at him and I said, ‘It’s not funny, I’m really really scared. I don’t know what’s happening’.
“Fortunately, my brother-in-law is one of the top neurosurgeons in the UK, and he and one of his friends decided to do an injection into the vertebrae and then to put steroids in there to alleviate the stress and the pain, to reduce the swelling in the facet joint.
“And I have to say, today I feel probably about 70-80% better. I have movement in my neck, I can talk and I have a rehearsal for a show tonight in Manchester, so fingers crossed.”
Barrowman is due to compete in Dancing On Ice in the new year, and said he is confident he will be well enough in time.
He said: “I’m just glad that it wasn’t something that was going to debilitate me… I’ll be fine for Dancing On Ice, don’t you worry, I cannot wait.”