Matt Hancock says he broke a rib during the filming of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
The former Health Secretary reportedly said that the closest he came to quitting the show came after “having my rib broken”, during the jungle phase of the show.
Mr Hancock, who still works as an MP representing West Suffolk, participated in the show last year along.
The show was filmed in Thung Ui, in north Vietnam, and challenged the contestants by putting them through the SAS selection process.
Commenting on his injury, Mr Hancock said: “I was determined to keep going so I just kept my mouth shut so I wasn’t medically discharged.”
He has previously said he wanted to go on the show to push his limits after a “challenging period as health secretary during the pandemic”.
Mr Hancock worked as Health Secretary during the Covid-19 pandemic but resigned from the post in June 2021 after he was found to have broken his own guidelines by kissing and embracing his aide Gina Coladangelo in his office.
He said he was in “pretty good shape” ahead of the show and had recently completed a 100-mile walk of Mont Blanc and had undergone an “intensive fitness programme”. But he said SAS: Who Dares Wins was a different level.
“Being on SAS was like nothing else … it’s one of the toughest physical things I’ve ever done and it really opens your eyes and makes you really look into yourself,” he said.
In the first episode of the show, which returns on Tuesday (September 26), Hancock was chosen to fight Pennant in the milling test.
Speaking about the fight, Hancock said: “I was relieved that I wasn’t being paired with somebody even bigger, or a woman. But I thought, this is a bad moment.
“It didn’t hurt nearly as much as I expected actually, being smacked in the face. The bravery some people showed sticking at it, especially when there were unequal bouts.”
