The Challenge star Derrick Kosinski shared more details about his brutal Season 40 injury and elimination battle against his castmate.
Viewers saw Derrick screaming in pain during a daily challenge after landing badly in the mud.
The result was an injury that hobbled him, but he kept going because Era 1 had already lost many of its team members.
Unfortunately, his time came in Episode 8, when he was on the losing team for the daily challenge and went into an elimination event against Era 3’s Cory Wharton.
Derrick didn’t back out due to his injury and still attempted to give it a serious effort, even if it meant hopping around on one leg.
However, the multi-time champion believes he still would’ve gone home even if he had defeated Cory in their blindfolded boxing competition.
Derrick addressed his leg injury and being able to continue in Battle of the Eras competitions
Following his aired elimination episode on MTV’s Battle of the Eras, Derrick revealed the rough leg injury that had him struggling to take on Cory on one leg at The Arena.
“It ended up being a torn ACL and meniscus. I mean, it happened right when I jumped in that mud pit. So I decided to continue playing the game. I actually left that day in an ambulance and went to see a doctor. ” he told Parade’s Mike Bloom.
Derrick shared that he asked “The Challenge gods” if he left in an ambulance if he’d get disqualified for the season, and they told him it was up to him. He said at first, they didn’t do any X-rays or MRIs because he could still put pressure on the knee when he stood or walked.
“Sometimes, when you hurt yourself, you kind of wait a little while. Here, we’re not waiting very long. It’s like two, three days, and you’re back in doing something physical. I was obviously hoping for a swim or a hang or maybe another trivia. Alright, not another trivia,” he joked.
“All I could say is, like, I wish some of these episodes were two hours long. Because I do think that there’s a lot of stuff that they cut out. I think a lot of people were like, ‘Oh, what happened with the leg? We saw that you injured it. And then nothing.’ There’s just not enough time,” he said regarding the episodes not showing more about his leg injury.
Derrick believes he would still have gone home
At The Arena, Cory and Derrick battled in an event where one competitor was blindfolded and got boxing gloves. At the same time, their opponent had exploding dust or paint targets all over their body. In addition, the opponent wore bells and squeaky footwear so the boxer could hear them moving.
Various strategies came into play, and Cory seemed to have an advantage due to having two uninjured legs with which to work. However, Derrick still made a valiant effort and managed to destroy all of the targets on Cory.
Ultimately, host TJ Lavin revealed that Cory was a little faster, ending Derrick’s time on Season 40. According to Derrick, he probably would’ve said he was going home even if he won the event since he had an MRI the next day.
“I knew that win or lose this elimination, I wasn’t going to continue much longer. I think that next day I was going to go get an MRI, and I don’t know what was going to happen. If I had won, maybe I would’ve been like, ‘I can’t continue,'” he admitted.
“You saw a lot of raw emotions happen there in those final minutes of this episode. I don’t think I was going to continue on much longer because I was scared,” Derrick told EW.
He knew that his road to recovery would be long with an injury of that nature. At the same time, Derrick knew his wife was nine months pregnant at home, so he was anxious to be with her when she delivered their baby son, Maverick.
The Challenge: Battle of the Eras airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.
Episodes of The Challenge are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
The link above is an affiliate link. This means that for any qualifying purchase you make, we may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.