Ex-Super League and NRL star Sam Burgess breaks silence on choking reality TV program instructor

If there is one thing that Sam Burgess is, it is committed to the cause in everything that he does.

As a rugby league player, Burgess famously broke his cheekbone in the first minute of his 2014 Grand Final success with the South Sydney Rabbitohs whilst his appearance on SAS Australia displayed his competitive spirit to the max.

In one area of the reality TV program, Burgess and his fellow competitors were ‘captured’ by those in charge and were tasked with trying to escape their clutches.

Burgess, famously, whilst being transported from one area to another, choked out of one the drivers before kicking him out of the van.

That led to the news story breaking that the former Bradford Bulls man had almost killed one of the instructors, with an ambulance having to be called.

In Burgess’ words, however, it is an incredible story.

“At some stage at the back end they take you hostage so in the back of your mind you know that is coming,” Burgess said on BBC 5 Live.

“They will have a meeting with you and say if you are captured, the best chances of survival are to leave early on a you are lower down the food chain.

“They give you the best tips to escape, I’m soaking up everything. My brain is like military now and I think I’m in a warzone. They capture us on day 11 and 12.

“My brain starts clicking into survival. We were transported from one to another about three hours in and  managed to free my hands and I managed to shift my hood to see what was going on.

“There were only two instructors in the vehicle with no weapons so I freed a couple of the other contestants and I took control of the vehicle.

“I choked a guy out and then kicked him out of the van and I stole the van. I didn’t have a clue where we were but we had all the comms from the security guys.

“They stopped chasing us and a few contestants said we’d gone too far but then cars came round the corner and I ended up taking over again and I pulled into a public car park. They came back and recaptured us.

It was the only time that anyone broke character when the boss Cameron said to me ‘what are you doing? You are not insured.’

“Then they tortured us for the night but for me it was real. As soon as you enter you are cuffed and hooded and it’s on.

“I took it quite seriously and I loved it.”

It’s an incredible story of a man getting so into a reality TV program that the emergency services had to be called out. Burgess can do anything he puts his mind to.