The Survivor 50 return for Colby Donaldson was a rough one.
It turns out that he was seriously injured, and he shared what happened during his exit interviews.
Colby was the runner-up on Survivor: The Australian Outback. He then returned for Survivor: All-Stars and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.
But all those seasons happened many years ago. When he got the call for Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans, Colby knew he had to take the chance.
Fans witnessed a much calmer and stoic Colby this time around. He has some strong alliances, but Colby got voted out on Day 13. The big Blood Moon twist did him in on Survivor 50, Episode 6.
Colby Donaldson suffered a bad injury on Survivor 50
During the latest episode, Coby spoke about dealing with an injured foot. He noted that it was slowing him down, but he wasn’t giving up. Later, it seemed to be getting worse, but he continued to tough it out.
Colby noted in an exit interview that he actually had two injuries to the same foot. Either one could have sidelined a castaway.
“One was a torn ligament. That wouldn’t have taken me out of the game,” Colby told PEOPLE. It was painful, but the doc said, ‘Look, Colby, it’s gonna suck for you. You’re not going to do very good in the challenges. However, it’s not something I’m going to take you out of the game [for].'”
Had that been his only ailment, maybe Colby could have survived a bit longer in the game. The physical nature of the Episode 6 Immunity Challenge made it nearly impossible to compete with two injuries.
Colby Donaldson gets an infection on Survivor 50
“The other injury, which was unrelated but on the same foot, was a puncture wound I got somewhere that introduced some bacteria that led to an infection,” Colby stated in his interview.
Getting an infection in the wild is never a good thing.
“That infection kept getting worse day after day, starting on Day 9 and last night’s episode was Day 12,” Colby added. “So we had been monitoring it. I couldn’t hide it from everyone because my limp was so bad, and my pride and ego helped me off the tribal council stage. But around camp, it was obvious that I had an injury. Because they can’t treat it in the game, that infection was only going to fester and get worse, and it was on the bottom of my foot, so it wasn’t something I could keep clean necessarily all the time.”
How bad was the infection? Colby said that the doctor had never seen one that bad on the show.
The infection likely could have ended Colby’s game if he had somehow survived a few more Tribal Councils.
More news and notes from the show
Mike White lost a lot of weight on Survivor 50. He also spoke about being forced to leave Ponderosa early.
A Survivor legend called the Blood Moon twist a flop. They spoke all about how it ruined the episode.
A Survivor winner and his Big Brother wife just adopted a baby. The growing reality TV family shared some really cute photos.
