JOEY Essex has revealed that he was unable to tie his shoelaces after suffering a nasty injury during Dancing on Ice rehearsals.
The former Towie star, 32, tipped backwards and almost chopped his finger off with his own skate just days into his training.
Joey, who is paired with Vanessa Bauer, 26, was left shaken and forced to wear a metal tip to protect his finger.
The TV favourite said he struggled to do simple tasks for a month after the terrifying accident.
“At the start it was doing up my laces… I hurt my fingers, I couldn’t do my laces up. So I had to get my laces done up for about a month,” he said.
Joey said he is now left with a “big scar” on his finger that feels “quite uncomfortable”.
He explained: “As I was skating on the first day around the rink, everyone had their hands over their faces, like, he’s gonna hurt himself because I was falling over a lot.
“They said, ‘You need to slow down. We know you’re having fun, but relax.’ I was being funny and was like, ‘Yeah I will. I don’t want to lose my finger!’
“Then within ten seconds I fell over backwards and my hand went under my skate and there was blood everywhere.
“They thought I was joking because of what we’d just been saying. ‘Expect drama, expect risk’
“All I remember is a producer yelling, ‘No he’s being serious! His finger!’
“I could see the bone, four medics came over with a stretcher.”
Luckily for Joey, Vanessa has been a rock for him during his battle back on to the ice.
After being paired up with the German skating champion, the duo are now dating.
And Joey, 32, admits he is struggling to keep his hands to himself — which is hardly surprising, given the pair have been spending every day training ahead of tomorrow night’s launch show on ITV1.
“I’m truly blessed to be paired with Vanessa, I was very happy,” Joey said with a smile in an exclusive chat ahead of the series.
He added: “You’re close and you are touching each other’s legs . . . and everywhere else. You are very intimate and it can happen.
“Honestly I don’t know how people do this show when they’re married — it would be a disaster.
“People were saying to me, like, ‘If I was married . . . God!’ Lucky I ain’t got a ring on my finger, eh?”
Joey will make his Dancing on Ice debut tonight, along with Love Island star Ekin-Su CülcüloğluSu, Coronation Street star Mollie Gallagher and singer Michelle Heaton, among a string of other famous faces others.
