NRL legend Willie Mason forced to pull out of SAS Australia after suffering a gruesome injury during training
NRL great Willie Mason has revealed he was all set to appear on season three of SAS Australia but had to pull out due to injury before production got underway.
The 41-year-old footy player will undergo surgery on Wednesday after rupturing his left pectoral muscle while training for the show.
He told The Daily Telegraph he was ‘disappointed’, but vows he will be back next year after he gets himself fit enough to compete.
Change of plan: NRL star Willie Mason has revealed he was all set to appear on season three of SAS Australia, but had to pull out due to injury before production got underway
‘I can deal with pain all right – I don’t freak out and start crying and all of that stuff. Injuries are a part of life. It is like a sunken hole on my bicep and chest,’ he told the publication.
Willie said the injury, which has left him with huge bruising across his body, happened on Friday – the day before the new series began filming.
He said he’d been training every single day for eight weeks – sometimes three times a day – in anticipation of starring on the show.
‘I was disappointed because of the amount of work I put in,’ he said, adding that the injury occurred while he was abseiling.
Fame: Mason is a former NRL star who played in the NRL All Stars and on the New South Wales State of Origin team
‘I didn’t approach it like it was just a show, I want to win the thing, I want to get through the 14 days and so the amount of work I put in makes it disappointing,’ Willie said. Pictured: SAS Australia’s chief instructor Ant Middleton
‘I didn’t approach it like it was just a show, I want to win the thing, I want to get through the 14 days and so the amount of work I put in makes it disappointing.’
Channel Seven released the full line-up set to take part in the military-style competition on Sunday.
The 2022 contestants include retired NRL star Darius Boyd, model Simone Holtznagel as well as Bachelor stars Anna Heinrich and Locky Gilbert.
They will appear alongside former Olympic swimmer Geoff Huegill, Olympic diver Melissa Wu, AFL star Barry Hall, Real Housewives of Sydney’s Melissa Tkautz and convicted cocaine dealer Richard Buttrose.
Boxers Ebanie Bridges and Michael Zerafa as well as comedian Paul Fenech, rugby star Ellia Green, NRLW player Millie Boyle, motorsports presenter Riana Crehan, and AFL commentator Wayne Carey are also set to compete on the show.
Meet your 2022 cast! A troubled Home and Away heart-throb, Olympic swimmer, retired NRL star and model will be starring on SAS Australia next year
Troubled Home and Away heartthrob Orpheus Pledger, who was arrested for allegedly being in possession of methamphetamine in February, will also appear on the program.
Like Willie, cricket legend Michael Clarke had signed on for season three but also had to pull out due to injury.
‘Unfortunately I slipped a disc in my back doing the training,” he said on Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast.
‘You get a four-week program where you got to do some stuff in preparation for the show and unfortunately I did my back. I let the guys know a couple of weeks ago that I’d done my disc and then it’s just been physio every day.
‘Unfortunately I’ve had to pull out which is disappointing but let’s never say never.
‘I’ve never been a fan of reality TV. This is probably the one show I thought, there are certainly some out of the comfort zone stuff that I wanted to test myself and I was looking forward to it.’
Out: Like Willie, cricket legend Michael Clarke had signed on for season three, but also had to pull out due to injury