Leon Schuster bedridden and in 'unbearable pain' after back surgery

Last year it came to light that Leon Schuster had seriously injured himself while filming the 2022 movie Mr Bones 3. The 72-year-old first underwent surgery in August, but then required a second operation after a fall.

The series of surgeries have left him largely confined to his bed, enduring incredible pain, and unable to move freely.

Now, in a recent interview with YOU magazine, he revealed how it has also left him battling “depression”.

“I’ve been through a rough patch, man, through absolute hell,” he revealed. “I’m not in a good place, I’ll be honest with you. But I’m in a grateful place. And that’s why I try to lie here in a straight position and keep my spirits up with a bit of light-heartedness.”

The iconic South African comedian fell off a pickup truck during the filming of Mr Bones 3: Son of Bones. He went in for surgery and then to a rehab facility to learn to walk again.

However, things fell apart from there.

“I got up confused and wanted to go to the toilet but I had no idea where I was,” he recalls. “I got up, wet my pants, stepped in the urine and fell on my back.

“Then I felt tremendous pain. I felt as if they could cut off my back and give the bones to the dogs. I just lay there and screamed.”

“From then on everything went downhill,” he adds after tests revealed vertebrae damage.

“The doctors told me a spinal nerve in my vertebra had broken halfway. If it’d completely broken, I would’ve been paralysed for the rest of my life. The doctors managed to fix it but also warned if I fell again there would be no turning back.” 

He now needs another surgery in order to ‘fix’ a loose screw that has been pressing against the nerve.

“The doctor told me he can only take away 50% of my pain. It’s a very delicate operation and if any mistake is made, it can have severe consequences. Now I lie awake worrying whether I’ll survive, whether I’ll make it.

 “I walk with a cane, but I walk bent forward. I have this crooked step that I call the baboon shuffle,” he added.

The multi-talented singer, actor, filmmaker, and comedian has blazed a trail for South African artists throughout an incredible career.

Earlier this year he took to Facebook to mourn his late mother who passed away in Bloemfontein in 2022 when she was 100.