Ben Shephard shocked Good Morning Britain viewers today with a horrific looking injury – maybe the popular superstition surrounding “unlucky” Friday 13 has some truth!
The TV presenter and journalist, who works across ITV and Sky Sports, came on to host today’s show alongside Kate Garraway and Charlotte Hawkins wearing a grey protective boot.
Early birds may have spotted Ben’s 6am tweet today: a photo of the cast captioned: “Morning all – so this grew on me overnight!”
So what was the cause of Ben’s injury? Given his Sky Sports background, it would be fair to assume it was – as Ben’s fellow presenter Kate Garraway speculated – a “great sporting injury”.
But Ben spilled the far more hilarious secret behind his injury: “I fell off a wall basically. I was messing around with the kids trying to be a bit too ninja-ry and failing again, and it’s been quite bad.”
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He also revealed the nature of the damage: “I’ve ruptured a few ligaments in my ankle.” Ouch – that sounds painful!
Kate pointed out the appropriate timing: “If you’re superstitious it’s not good, but Ben Shephard has already had his bad luck, take a look at what he’s wearing this season!”
However, Ben made light of it, responding with a joke: “It’s the latest in high street injury chic!”
He also clarified that the accident had actually occurred a little while ago: “What I did was, I actually did it last week, but I didn’t make a fuss. You know me I don’t like to make a fuss.” So not quite as superstitious as it seemed!
Poor Ben wasn’t getting much sympathy from the doctors either. He revealed: “I saw a specialist yesterday and he said you know my brother-in-law – Sean Fletcher.
“Well I’m sure Sean had phoned him up beforehand because he wasn’t gentle with me.”
At least Twitter was more sympathetic…writer and campaigner Natasha Devon tweeted: “Ah get well soon, Ben. (It’s better to be a failed ninja than never to try and be a ninja at all).”
Another user added: “Hope it doesn’t hurt for too long !”.
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Get better soon, Ben (and no more ninja fighting for you, Friday 13 or otherwise!)