Speaking in an interview following his elimination from the landmark 50th season of the reality television series, Colby Donaldson has revealed how he was almost forced to leave the show before he was voted out by his fellow players at tribal council. The “Survivor” star suffered an injury while competing and the severity of the problem meant that doctors were trying to make Donaldson quit under medical advice but that he was able to convince the experts to allow him to keep his spot.
Colby Donaldson Reveals Injury Nearly Led Medics to Make Him Leave the ‘Survivor’ Island
Speaking in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Donaldson responded to a question about his foot injury, revealing the full extent of the pain it caused him and how it almost led to him being removed from the series early.
“I first injured it in the Zac Brown challenge when we were pushing the boat up the beach,” he explained. “And that ultimately turned out to be a torn ligament in the bottom of my foot connecting my big toe to my heel. That was bad enough, but as luck, or the lack of luck, would have it, leaving that challenge walking, and I was barefoot, just down a production trail, I stepped on something that must have punctured my foot because I then developed an infection, which became a staph infection.”
He continued, “And the infection was far worse than the ligament injury itself, to the point where I’m not sure I could have made it through the game because of the infection. And they couldn’t treat it while I was in the game. So we’re meeting with docs before and after every challenge, and the docs were looking at it.”
The “Survivor” contestant went on to discuss how bad the injury came during the time that he spent on the show. “My foot was swelling every day. It was super hot to the touch and the pain threshold… my pain level, my threshold’s high, but the pain level was through the roof. That infection most likely would’ve taken me out at some point.”
“In fact, the docs wanted to pull me before Tribal, but because I knew I was going at Tribal, I said, ‘No, let me just go to this one Tribal. I think I’m gonna get sent home tonight. If I don’t, we can reassess the injury in the morning.'”
Colby Donaldson Almost Backed Out of His Season 50 Appearance
In February, Donaldson also revealed that he almost chose not to appear in the 50th season of the show. The experienced castaway, who has appeared in three previous seasons of the show, got cold feet before filming began and almost decided not to travel to Fiji.
“It was an immediate yes for me initially and then months later, as we began to approach the departure date, there was part of me that wanted to back out,” he revealed.
“It’s a sacrifice people have made for 25 years,” he continued. “There are a lot of people that would be great on the show, but can’t take that much time off work, or can’t be away from their family for responsibility reasons. So, I needed to look at that.”
