Kent’s Gladatior star says he has gone through the “worst three weeks” of his life after a horror injury.
Matt Morsia said he did not eat for 12 days, lost around 15kg in bodyweight and was hiccupping every “three to five seconds” after being injured during the filming of the hit TV show.
The 39-year-old, known by Legend on the BBC series, says he tore his bicep tendon off the bone when he tackled a contender last month.
The fitness influencer, who lives in Hythe, discussed the “freak accident” on Instagram and in a YouTube video posted to his channel, MattDoesFitness, this evening.
He told his 2.35 million subscribers how, at first, the injury did not “hurt” but when he went backstage, he saw how his bicep was in the wrong place.
“I’ve done that game almost 20 times and never had a problem before,” the dad of two explained.
“But at the same time, that’s the reality of Gladiators, right?
“That’s what makes it the best show on TV. With that, you’re going to get injuries.
“I won’t lie I was obviously pretty devastated. Knowing I wasn’t going to compete in the games anymore obviously killed me.”
Five days after the injury, the man mountain went to London for surgery during which doctors reattached the tendon.
However, it was at this point that he says things got “wild”.
“I developed this intense nausea and vomiting like 24 hours a day”, the former Folkestone Academy PE teacher said. “Everything I would eat, I would throw up.
“I’m talking Team America-style projectile vomiting. And it wouldn’t stop. It just stayed 24 hours a day.
“It got so bad that I was admitted to hospital and stayed there for almost two weeks.
“Those couple of weeks were easily the worst of my entire life by a million miles.
“The sickness and the nausea just wouldn’t go away. I literally didn’t eat for 12 days.
“I couldn’t stand up because I was so weak.
“In the end, I lost 15 kilograms in body weight. My weight went from 97 kilograms down to, at its lowest, 82 kilograms.
“I feel like I’m half the person I was.”
Matt also developed a case of extreme singultus, which saw him hiccup every three to five seconds for eight days.
“It might not sound like much,” he said, “but trust me you get hiccups for 24 hours a day for eight days, it’s one of the worst things ever.
“I couldn’t sleep properly because during the night, I would wake up, and it would be like someone was pressing down on my neck, and it would make me choke sometimes.”
After being discharged at the end of last week, Matt is now on the road to recovery and is gradually building up the amount of food he can eat.
He hopes that over the next few weeks this will return to normal.
Meanwhile, his bicep has healed “really well”, the fitness enthusiast says, and he can carry out most everyday tasks.
Matt says he is going to transform from “a skinny weasel with the world’s smallest arms” to being a “jacked monster” as he looks to “smash” his rehab.
He said: “I think, it’s like six weeks [to heal]. Now, for me, I’m a freak. I heal quick, so I reckon more like four or five weeks.
“This is a pathetic injury, and I’m going to smash my rehab and get back in no time.”
