Cassidy Little thought he had been captured by the Taliban when he woke up in hospital two weeks after losing his leg.
The ‘Coronation Street’ actor – who has joined the ITV soap as Paralympian Greg Kennedy – tragically had his limb blown off in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province in May 2011 while serving in the Royal Marines, and after spending two weeks in a coma he woke up in a Birmingham hospital and started attacking the medics, thinking the Islamic fundamentalist group had taken him prisoner.
He said: "I remember how incredibly painful it is to be dragged across a field when you’ve got two fractures in your pelvis. I remember being pulled on to a helicopter.
"Then they put me into a coma – and my next memory is waking up two weeks later in Birmingham.
"My instinct was I’d been captured by the Taliban.
"I tried to fight my way out of the ICU. I hit one nurse and put another in a headlock because I had something that I now know is called ‘ICU psychosis’."
The 37-year-old star – who has four-year-old daughter Allegra with wife Laura, 38 – is "happy" to admit he is on anti-depressants because he still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
He said: "Do I suffer from aspects of PTSD? Of course.
"I’m happy to admit to the whole world that I’m on anti-depressants.
"My wife Laura noticed two years ago. She had the courage to come to me and say, ‘Something is not right with your behaviour’."
Cassidy had to "pinch himself" after landing the ‘Corrie’ role – which sees Greg mentor cobbles character Jack Webster (Kyran Bowes) after he lost his leg when he was struck down with sepsis – and the war veteran believes the part is "a big deal".
The former medic – who competed on ‘The People’s Strictly for Comic Relief’ in 2015 opposite pro partner Natalie Lowe – added to The Sun newspaper: "ITV have done a really clever thing.
"They’ve got a one-legged soldier who believes in motivating people to play a one-legged guy motivating someone who has lost his leg. It’s a big deal."
Coronation Street’s Cassidy Little feared capture after leg injury
