Sam Burgess’ SAS Australia salary revealed

He’s SAS Australia’s top celebrity, and Sam Burgess was reportedly paid more than twice as much as his castmates to appear on the gruelling show.

Sam Burgess’ rumoured SAS Australia salary has been revealed.

The retired NRL player is the Channel 7 reality series’ key talent for this season, generating significant media coverage over his appearance thanks to interest over his off-field indiscretions over the past 18 months.

And he was certainly paid a lucrative amount to sign on, with The Daily Telegraph obtaining the entire cast’s potential earnings.

Burgess, 32, was reportedly paid between $150,000 and $200,000 to take part in the show – more than double what most of the other celebrities earned.

The show was shot over two weeks earlier this year in Capertree Valley, NSW.

Sam Burgess is the biggest star on this season of SAS Australia. Picture: Jeremy Grieve

While Burgess’ salary is impressive, it’s nowhere near the amount former Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke was rumoured to be receiving for the third season of SAS, which begins filming next month.

The 40-year-old, whose private life has also made headlines recently thanks to his divorce from Kyly Clarke and subsequent relationship with Sydney socialite Pip Edwards, was reportedly offered around $750,000 as a sign-on fee, not including bonuses contestants receive during the series.

However, he was forced to pull out just weeks before filming begins next month due to ongoing back issues.

Speaking on Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast last week, Clarke revealed it was preparatory training for the show that forced him to pull out.

“I did sign up to do it,” Clarke began. “Unfortunately I slipped a disc in my back doing the training.

Michael Clarke was forced to pull out of filming SAS Australia’s third season next month. Picture: AAP/Dave Hunt

He added: “You get a four-week program where you got to do some stuff in preparation for the show and unfortunately I did my back. I let the guys know a couple of weeks ago that I’d done my disc and then it’s just been physio every day.

“But unfortunately filming is very near. So my back hasn’t improved anywhere near enough.

“Unfortunately I’ve had to pull out which is disappointing but let’s never say never.

“I’ve never been a fan of reality TV. This is probably the one show I thought, there are certainly some out of the comfort zone stuff that I wanted to test myself and I was looking forward to it.

“But it’s a shame. My back is my back and it has been my whole career and the last thing I wanted was to wind up in a hospital bed needing surgery. So plenty of physio treatment for now.”

SAS Australia continues tonight on Channel 7 at 7.30pm.