Posted by Richard Head

Wednesday January 6, 2010

SYLVESTER Stallone broke his neck filming his new movie.

The actor suffered the serious injury while shooting a fight scene with former WWE wrestler Steve Austin for The Expendables, and had to have major surgery.

“Man, it was seven guys, kicking each other’s a*s, one guy tougher than the next,” Stallone told FHM magazine. “No joke, our stunt guys were begging for mercy.

“Actually, my fight with Stone Cold Steve Austin was so vicious that I ended up getting a hairline fracture in my neck. I’m not joking. I haven’t told anyone this, but I had to have a very serious operation afterwards. I now have a metal plate in my neck.”

This is not the first injury the 63-year-old star has suffered while making a movie.

While making Rocky IV in 1985 a boxing scene with Dolph Lundgren — who also appears in The Expendables – got so out of hand, Stallone almost died after being punched in the head and chest.

“Dolph Lundgren and I always went for it,” he said. “I gave him orders to try to knock me out while the cameras were rolling. At one point, he hit me so hard on the top of the head I felt my spine compress. He then hit me with an almighty uppercut.

“That night my chest and heart started to swell, and I had to be helicopter-ambulanced from my hotel to a nearby emergency room. I was told that Dolph had punched my rib cage into my chest, compressing my heart. If it had swollen any more, I would have died.

“After that, I was like, ‘Dolph, it’s only a movie, bro.’ ”

Stallone, Lundgren and Austin also star alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Jet Li, Jason Statham and Mickey Rourke in The Expendables – about a crack military squad that is assembled to overthrow a South American dictator.

Tags: sylvester stallone