Jeremy Clarkson slices off thumb in kitchen accident

23 December 2021, 17:00 | Updated: 23 December 2021, 17:08

By Radio X

The 61-year-old presenter revealed the accident which took place while he was using a mandolin slicer.

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Jeremy Clarkson sliced off part of his thumb in a gruesome kitchen accident.

The 61-year-old TV personality revealed in his column in The Sunday Times newspaper, that he was making chilli-flavoured crisps with his girlfriend Lisa Hogan, 48, when the accident occurred.

The Grand Tour star decided to use a a mandolin slicer to cut up the potatoes, but got a lot more than he bargained for when he ended up slicing off part of his thumb in the process.

"You slide the potato along it and the razor-sharp blade takes a slice off the bottom," wrote Clarkson. "Then you slide it again and it takes another. And you keep doing this, with much vigour, until eventually your thumb is in the firing line and it take a slice off that. A big slice. A crisp-sized slice.

"Lisa noticed that under the mandolin, among the slices of potato, there was a piece of meat.

"It was like a miniature pork chop, about 2cm long, 1cm wide and 3mm thick. And, yes, it was half my thumb."

However, the pain didn't end there, with Clarkson having to endure chilli stings as well.

It turns out after his partner gasped and dropped the thumb on the floor, she immediately picked it up trying to reattach it to the TV presenter's hand.

Unfortunately her act of kindness led to even more pain as she'd been handing Carolina reaper chillies and hadn't yet washed her hands.

He revealed: "Now, you may know that a chilli that scores a record 2.2 million on the Scoville scale can cause a fair bit of irritation when taken orally, but this is nothing compared with what it does when it’s applied to an open wound, along with a dash of salt for extra agony. You may have heard the scream from where you were. Even if you were in Stuttgart.”

Ouch.

The former Top Gear presenter added: "The doc explained that I could lose the use of it, and since the opposable thumb is all that separates us from goats, I decided I'd better do as I was told."

Going into detail about the problems his thumb injury has caused him so far, Clarkson added "I can't do up button-flied trousers. I can't open a door. I can't sign my name and I can't even wipe my bottom."