Britain’s most successful gymnast Beth Tweddle has undergone neck surgery after getting injured in a fall during rehearsals.
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She has since been able to move her hands and feet although the 30-year-old, who has quit the show, described the ordeal as scary.
Beth went into surgery at 8pm GMT on Sunday where a piece of bone was taken “from her hip and used it to fuse the two vertebrae that were fractured, along with pinning them together”.
Beth is the third member of this year’s celebrity contestants to pull out of the show.
Her London 2012 bronze medal came in the uneven bars.
Hundreds of well wishers, including her former Crewe & Nantwich Gymnastics Club as well as Team GB, have posted “get well” messages on social media.
Tonight, the second live episode of Channel 4’s current series of The Jump, which airs at 7.30pn, will feature the Snow Cross event, and as ever, the losers of each race will face the dreaded ski-jump as they battle to stay in the contest.
It is not yet known if the accident will affect her appearance on the show.
“Beth and the family would like to thank everyone for their good wishes”.
A Channel 4 spokeswoman confirmed that Tweddle had been taken to hospital with a back injury but declined to comment on reports she would need surgery.
Rumours now indicate that Paul McCartney’s ex-wife, Heather Mills, who was previously eliminated in the first round, will make a return to the Jump to replace swimmer Rebecca Adlington.
She added: “I know I can do much better, and I am working with my prosthetist to create a foot that has more movement like a human’s”.
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Viewers have now stepped up calls for the show to be cancelled, with one tweeter suggesting that “surely it’s time to cancel this ridiculously unsafe show before someone’s seriously injured”.
