SAS Australia: Pete Murray talks suffering a dislocated elbow on reality TV

It has been more than three months but Pete Murray is still battling a gruesome injury he suffered in a challenge with Mark Phillippoussis.

Three and a half months down the track, singer Pete Murray is still suffering from his SAS Australia injury.

The 51-year-old was tonight medically discharged from the reality competition after dislocating his elbow in a confronting one-on-one combat challenge with tennis great Mark Phillippoussis.

“I still can’t straighten my arm at the moment,” the father of four said. “It is getting better. It is quite a painful injury to have, the physio says it is pretty much the worst joint you can dislocate but it is getting there.”

Singer and SAS Australia contestant Pete Murray dislocated his elbow on the show.

An X-ray image of the dislocation shows just how “nasty” the injury was that forced Murray to pull out of the competition.

“There was a bit of chipping of the bone, not enough that it needed surgery but it did take a bit off the joint capsule,” he explained. “I fell awkwardly. Mark gave me a couple of hits and I lost balance falling on my back and put my arm out and the rest is history. It is disappointing of course but it is what it is.”

Murray has been told he will make a full recovery. He went for his first surf since the accident at the weekend.

Pete Murray on SAS Australia. Picture: Jeremy Grieve

“It is a really slow process,” he said. “I should be back to 100 per cent if I keep doing the work on it. If I don’t do the work, I’d probably have a bent elbow for the rest of my life. I can hold the kids now, which was a mission before. I had never broken any bones or dislocated anything before.”

Murray was the eldest man to compete in the series. Tennis champion Alicia Molik also pulled out of the competition on Monday night.

Their departures leaves contestants vying for SAS selection in the gruelling training course.

Murray said he wouldn’t do any other reality show but was drawn to SAS because of the physical challenge. He joked that he didn’t get much airtime in the earlier episodes.

“I actually felt like a weirdo in the background because they weren’t even showing any of my conversations with anyone,” he laughed. “Here I was in the background being the guy that was just there and no-one saw me doing any tasks.”

He added: “To me, this wasn’t a reality show, this was a course we did. I wouldn’t do reality TV, I don’t really watch it. To me, this wasn’t a reality TV show until I saw the edit and I saw this is actually a reality TV show.”

MURRAY WANTS BYRON BAY TO GET VAXXED

Singer Pete Murray has called on his largely unvaccinated hometown of Byron Bay to get the Covid-19 jab.

The award-winning musician is vaccinated and believes it is the only way out of the pandemic.

“I understand there is a lot of fear about it, especially up here, there is a lot more people that don’t want to get vaccinated,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

“But we are lucky because we haven’t had it come through here. If it did come through, and a lot of people got sicker and people were dying, that might change people’s opinions.”

Pete Murray with his baby daughter Sahara at home in Byron Bay.

Byron Bay and surrounding townships are under pressure to increase vaccination rates as they have been criticised for languishing behind other parts of the state.

In the Byron Shire just 31 per cent of residents are double dosed and 55 per cent have had one dose.

By contrast much of Sydney’s north and west is now above 85 per cent single dose and two thirds fully vaccinated.

Murray is one of several high profile residents who lives in the beachside hamlet.

And while he said he “couldn’t stand” a career in politics, he adds “we are at a point now where we have to get back” to normal life.

“That is the challenge now,” he said.

“The government has set the rules and we do have to get vaccinated. I am vaccinated, that is something that I had to do. If I don’t, I am not going to be working.”

The 51-year-old, who has released a new single titled Hold Me Steady, has had no adverse reaction to the Covid vaccine.

“It is a hard thing but it is difficult to force people to have this as well,” he said.

“At the same time, it feels like we may not move forward. It is a tough one.”

Murray,also called on governments to open borders to allow for travel across Australia so he and other entertainers can tour and play live shows.

“The music industry has been hit really hard, we are the first to stop and the last to come back,” he said.

“Sorry to get all political but there needs to be something from the state governments where they stop closing the borders. Once you close borders, artists tour around the country and we just can’t do it. We are really struggling financially. We are one country, we can’t just keep operating as separate states.”