Dancing On Ice contestant Joe Swash, former EastEnders and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, has said the large bandage he has to wear after injuring his ear has entertained his friends, family and colleagues.
The 38-year-old TV star, who is skating alongside Perri Kiely and Libby Clegg, said he has not got as much sympathy as he would have expected after his ear was nipped by dance partner Alex Murphy's skate.
The pair were rehearsing the move on ice earlier this week. His ear swelled up and needed to be drained at hospital, he is wearing the bandage around his head until Sunday's final.
Swash's injury was revealed earlier this week by his wife Stacey Solomon when she posted a video of him returning home from training with the dressing covering his ear and head, and in another post she said she was "crying with laughter" over it.
Speaking ahead of the final, Swash said: "I've knocked the ear and it's like a cauliflower ear, it just got swollen and they had to drain it and cut it a little bit.
"But the bad thing is I've got to keep (the bandage) on until Sunday. I'm going to have to take it off for the show, but I've got to keep it on all week.
"I did say to them, 'Is it not a little bit overkill?' And they were like, 'No, it's the only way we can bandage an ear'."
He joked: "I'd have loved to have had a bit of sympathy from people.
"I phoned up Alex and Dan Whiston (Dancing On Ice's associate creative director) and they just laughed at me.
"My mum phoned me and made me go round the house just so she could see it and have a laugh.
"Then Stacey phoned me going, 'Where are you?' and then she did a whole build-up (on Instagram) saying, 'I don't know where Joe is'.
"And then I turned up and she had the camera straight in my face!"
Swash will face off against Paralympian Clegg and Diversity dancer Kiely in the final.
The Dancing On Ice final airs at 6pm on Virgin Media One on Sunday.
