Michael Parr: Emmerdale star reveals terrifying injury and health scare as he returns to the Dales
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Parr, who has returned to ITV soap Emmerdale as Ross Barton after a six-year hiatus, has spoken out about his health battles, which hindered his return to acting. The star, 38, told The Mirror that a serious back injury has left him bedridden, telling the newspaper: “If you can’t move you can’t act.”
The Emmerdale star revealed that he suffered the injury to his back as he was working out in the gym, crushing a nerve and injuring a disc in his lower back. He said: “It was terrifying; it was by far the worst pain I’ve felt in my entire life. The injury froze me and I couldn’t move.”
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Hide AdHe added that he has worried that he had “done myself some permanent damage”. However, while he recovered from the injury, more health problems hit.


Parr was filming in India when he was rushed to hospital after a suspected case of Legionnaires’ disease. He said: “I dropped about 20lb in four days and my cheekbones were starting to protrude.
“I’d been in my room hallucinating for four days. I didn’t know what was going on. I was delirious. I’m a massive chess player and I was so out of it I kept thinking I was a chess piece.”
Parr added: “Being taken to hospital in a foreign country is always scary, but especially when you can’t communicate with the doctors.”
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Hide AdThe Emmerdale star, who returns to the soap in a new storyline involving the Dales’ April Windsor, said that while he got back to health with the help of doctors and treatments such as acupuncture and cupping, he still gets “nervous” over old injuries flaring up.
Parr said: “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still get nervous if I feel a little pain in my back, but as I approach 40, I no longer put my body through the punishment that I used to. You only get one body so you’d better look after it.”
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