“Couldn’t walk for a month”

Sam Smith talks about the dangers of winter sports!

In an episode of Distracted with Annie and Nick In a podcast released on July 18, Smith – who uses the pronouns “they”/”them” – revealed that he was unable to walk for a month after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in a skiing accident earlier this year.

In January, Smith was photographed wearing a brace on her leg and holding a cane as they walked through Soho in New York City.

“I completely tore my anterior cruciate ligament while skiing. I was an idiot and went down a black slope on the second day,” said the 32-year-old. “I was brought down in a blood bag. That was the worst thing. It’s a permanent thing.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“It sits between the bones and helps you jump and hop around. It completely tore and I went the non-surgical route, but I couldn’t walk on that leg for a month and it was horrible,” the singer continued.

The musician added: “It was the first time I couldn’t move and I had a bit of weight. I was very nervous. I used it as an excuse to pull myself together.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, an ACL injury is “a tear or sprain of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) – one of the strong bands of tissue that connect your thigh bone (femur) to your shin bone (tibia).”

Smith also revealed in the podcast that they recently got a new phone because they needed a US number and wanted to remove their ex-partners’ numbers from their contact list.

“I just threw away my phone and got a new one. It’s the first time I haven’t had my music library that I’ve had since I was 11,” Smith said. “I started all over again. I needed an American number and my phone was full of people like ex-boyfriends and all these different people from the past few years.”

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword puzzle is here! How fast can you solve it? Play now!

But the musician didn’t stop at cleaning up his contact list, he also removed social media apps from his phone. “And I’ve deactivated social media. Everything. It’s crazy. Now I sit on benches in parks and just look at the trees,” he added.