Richard Hammond lost 7mm in height in his left leg when he shattered his knee in a car accident which occurred as he filmed TV series ‘The Grand Tour’.
The 47-year-old TV personality had been driving a Rimac Concept One electric super-car, which can reach speeds of nearly 200mph, in Switzerland in June but he lost control of the vehicle when doing the Hemburg Hill Climb resulting him crashing the car.
Luckily, Hammond managed to free himself from the wreckage before the car burst into flames but his knee did require surgery to repair the joint, and after surgeons inserted a metal plate and pins into his knee to fix it he was told that he’d lost nearly a centimetre in length.
The diminutive star – who stands at 5ft 5.5in – revealed: "The knee is bad, I think when the car touched down nose first it drove my leg up into the knee joint and smashed the bottom of the knee here and I as a result I’ve lost 7mm in height. I can’t despair on that, I’m just going to be running in circles forever!
"They’ve put the bit back in the knee and I’ve got a metal plate in my knee, that’s my Swiss Army knee now as I have some pins in there too holding it all together. It really hurts."
To aid his recovery, Richard is not allowed to run for 12 to 18 months, another thing that his annoying his wife Mindy, whom is already starting to grow weary of him being at home and not at work with his co-stars Jeremy Clarkson and James May.
In an interview on ‘This Morning’, he shared: "There’s no walking on the knee for a few months and I’ve been told there’s no running on that for about a year or 18 months. Which is bad because Mindy would often throw the running shoes at me and be like, ‘Get out!’
"I’m driving her mad; it’s the summer holidays too."
Mindy added: "I’ve got two teenage girls and a nine-year-old man. When he goes back, I will tell him, ‘Don’t do it again.’ It’s like once every 10 years."
In 2006, Richard ended up in a coma after he was involved in a high-speed crash when he was behind the wheel of a dragster which he had been driving for an episode of BBC programme ‘Top Gear’.
He suffered some brain injuries which resulted in memory loss and depression, but he went on to make a full recovery.
In his latest crash, Richard – who has been dubbed "Pappa Crutch" by his girls following his last accident – was conscious throughout the ordeal and was convinced he had no chance of surviving the crash even though he was able to make a dash to safety.
Richard Hammond lost 7mm in height in crash
