“Survivor 48” contestant Kevin Leung’s shoulder injury in the first challenge was much worse than what was shown on TV.
The 34-year-old finance manager exclusively told The Post after his elimination that he actually dislocated his shoulder the first day on the island and thought he was going to be medically evacuated.
“I actually blacked out from the entire thing, and they had to stick a medical kazoo in me,” Leung said. “So I really was like, ‘Wow, I’m done. I’m done with this whole experience.”‘
Leung’s shoulder dislocation didn’t make the edit, which bummed him out once he watched the show.
“It was a little sad not to be shown, but I also… I love ‘Survivor.’ The fact that I got confessionals. I’m just grateful that I even got something. So to me, it was sad, but I’m not entirely so distraught over it because at least it was known, and I could share my story.”
Despite his injury, Leung powered through the game until day five, when he was voted out by his own allies, Cedrek McFadden and Justin Pioppi.
Leung admitted that he “played too hard” in trying to save Mary Zheng and vote out Saiounia “Sai” Hughley, but he blames his injury most for his downfall.
“That, to me, already set me back a long time. I already was thinking negatively, like, ‘How am I going to win individual challenges? How am I going to win the game?’” Leung said.
“With a dislocated shoulder, I cannot climb a wall. I can’t swim. It’s just so hard to function like that,” he explained. “And then I had no sleep, obviously because of my shoulder. And no food. It was just really hard physically to just keep going.”
Leung also told The Post how he felt about his own alliance turning on him.
“Watching it, I was like, ‘Wow, they’re conspiring.’ I wasn’t that surprised. It was more so, I was really hoping that reasoning could help,” he said. “And the more that I was trying to be strategic and logically give them the reasons why we should do this, the more that they’re like, ‘You’re smart.’ I was like, ‘Oh no.’”
“I should have literally just sat on the beach and cried the whole day,” Leung joked. “I probably would’ve still been there at least for a couple days, before we lost the next immunity challenge and go to tribal.”
“Survivor” airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
