Sam Smith admits he couldn’t walk for a month after a ‘terrible’ skiing accident

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Sam Smith has recounted a horrific skiing accident that left him unable to walk for a month due to a torn cruciate ligament.

The 32-year-old nonbinary singer of “Stay With Me,” who uses the pronouns they/them, recalled in a recent interview on the BBC program Distracted with Annie and Nick Podcasts.

“I completely tore my anterior cruciate ligament,” Smith told presenters Annie Mac and Nick Grimshaw. “I was an idiot and went on a black run on the second day. I was taken down in a blood bag. That was the worst.” Black runs are considered challenging and are usually reserved for advanced skiers.

The Grammy winner tried to explain the injury by saying: “It sits between the bones and helps you jump and hop around.”

An ACL injury is a tear or sprain of the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee, often caused by a sudden twisting motion.

“It completely tore and I opted for non-surgical treatment, but I couldn’t walk on that leg for a month and it was horrible,” Smith said. “It was the first time I couldn’t move at all and I had a bit of weight on. I was very anxious. I’d struggled with anxiety for years. I used it as an excuse to pull myself together.”

According to the Cleveland Clinic, it takes an average of six to nine months for a torn anterior cruciate ligament to fully heal, but this can depend on the severity of the injury.

“I started using ice every morning,” the “I’m Not the Only One” singer recalls, “I started getting into my circadian rhythm, and a big part of that is light exposure to the eyes. So I tried to get as much sunlight as possible in the morning, and in the evening I turned off the phone and tried to basically live by candlelight for the last hour before bed.”

They joked, “Most nights I fail. I’m on my phone, texting.”

In January, Smith caused a stir after the two were photographed walking in New York City’s Soho district, wearing a knee brace on her right leg and walking with a cane.

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Smith is not the only celebrity who has recently injured his anterior cruciate ligament. Over the weekend Parks and Recreation Star Aubrey Plaza tore his ACL during a knockout game at the WNBA All-Star Weekend in Phoenix, Arizona.

Plaza was seen using crutches after the injury. “Thank you @wnba for hosting such an amazing weekend and taking such good care of me and my bad knee. Such a great game. See you in Paris (nope),” the white lotus Alum wrote on Instagram.