U2 singer Bono revealed to Ryan Tubridy that his recent back injury could have left him crippled for life.

The 50-year-old claimed it was only the intensive treatment he received from German doctors that allowed him to retain use of his left leg.

And he also revealed that he was still trying to cope with his injury.

“I had a pretty close call. What was dangerous about it was a piece of disc that had ripped through ligaments had gone down into the spinal canal and I could have lost the use of my left leg,” said the singer.

However, the Dubliner said that his role at the helm of one of the world’s biggest rock bands helped see through weeks and weeks of painful rehab. “Being the frontman in U2 is a great job and a reason for me to stick to what has been a really very hard programme of rehab,” he said. “It consists usually of German doctors beating me up and pushing me into all kinds of positions and exercises. I’m very fit now.

Surgery

“I think it’s something like 11 weeks since surgery so they’re very pleased. It’s really turned my life upside down.”

The singer was speaking to Tubridy from his Finnish hotel room ahead of the band’s latest gig in Helsinki. Bono joked he had been inspired to ring into the show after seeing Gerry Ryan in a dream.

“Gerry appeared to me last night in a dream and said: ‘That fellow Ryan Tubridy used to work making me coffee years ago and I always knew he had his eyes on my gig.’”

He advised Tubridy that the key to following in Gerry’s footsteps was to be himself.

“I suppose he could be very serious but never earnest, which is something I find quite hard,” Bono said of Gerry.

“I always tuned into him for that and you have that, too. You’ll have a great time on this show. They’re big shoes to fill.

“He had a big foot and a big mouth to put it in. You can’t do anything wrong with this spot if you are yourself. That was really the great art of Gerry Ryan, being himself.”

Irish Independent