Josh Martinez reveals his brutal injury on The Challenge Season 40 that ‘wasn’t shown’

An early, unaired injury hindered Josh Martinez’s ability to compete during The Challenge: Battle of the Eras.

The former Big Brother winner reached Episode 14 of MTV’s Season 40, outlasting multi-time winners that included Chris “CT” Tamburello, Derrick Kosinski, and Darrell Taylor.

The individuals representing Era 1 went out early as the other teams worked against them and sent them into eliminations.

Meanwhile, Josh played an impressive social game. Even with the Vacation Alliance’s issues, Josh had numerous allies throughout The Challenge house, who protected him from entering elimination events.

However, they couldn’t protect him in the recent episode. He performed poorly in the daily challenge and earned an automatic entry to The Arena due to his last-place finish.

That resulted in an unlucky matchup against his friend Cory Wharton in a game that favored Cory, and Josh had diminished chances to win due to the injury he recently revealed.

Josh shared details of his early injury during Season 40

According to Josh, he suffered a rough injury during the season’s first or second daily challenge. That impacted his ability to compete moving forward, and he had to take it easy trying to recover.

“I busted my knee wide open. I got 16 stitches. I couldn’t really run. I couldn’t jump on my knee and all that stuff. So what I was doing was either competing in challenges and when I wasn’t competing in challenges, I’m literally in bed icing my knee,” Josh told Parade’s Mike Bloom.

“Every time they cut a scene to me, I’m in bed. I was not moving from my bed because I was trying to rest,” he shared.

Josh indicated that a doctor had told him his injury would take “up to two months” to heal. At that time, nearly a month of filming remained for Season 40.

“I was like, ‘There’s no f*****g way.’ So when I wasn’t competing, I was two weeks out. I wasn’t training. I wasn’t running. If you know me, I f*****g wake up every morning. I would run the yard with Jordan. I was training every single day,” he told Bloom.

“So that injury was mentally f*****g me up. I was like, ‘I’m not at 100%,'” Josh shared.

However, Josh said that even if he didn’t have that injury and competed at his full ability, Cory would likely win an elimination set-up like that.

He praised Cory as the fastest and strongest competitor still in the game. He won an elimination event that involved sprinting past several walls to either ring a bell on offense or knock your opponent out of bounds on defense.

The Challenge showed other competitors’ injuries during Season 40 episodes

Interestingly, the Challenge showed footage or stories involving other players’ injuries during Season 40. During his interview, Josh called it “so crazy” that episodes or confessional interviews didn’t include his injury.

Notably, viewers saw CT’s scary fall into the water. During the episode, medics loaded him onto a stretcher and took him away for medical attention. Later, he revealed to castmates he’d suffered a back injury but continued to compete.

Derrick Kosinski also suffered a brutal leg injury during a daily challenge after jumping into the mud. He revealed since the episodes aired that he needed surgery after tearing his ACL and meniscus.

As of this writing, another injured Challenger is still active in the game but may be in trouble. Former Challenge winner Aviv Melmed revealed during Season 40 that she experienced plantar fasciitis, which made it difficult for her to run and perform other activities on her feet.

As of Episode 14, she finished last on the daily challenge and became a target after Cory defeated Josh in his elimination. That means Aviv has a good chance of getting put into The Arena if she doesn’t win the daily challenge in Episode 15.

Regarding Josh, viewers will wait and see if he returns to The Challenge in the future and finally reaches his first final because he seems hungrier than ever to get there.

The Challenge: Battle of the Eras airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.

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