The "baboon wrestling" goes horribly awry and Rhys finds himself facing surgery on his spine!

Oh the drama! Forget the bitching and love matching and the fact that B+C have finally come out of the closet and admitted their lurve for each other (hel-lo, it's old news for the rest of us!). This week, the model mansion was rocked when one of its most loved members was involved in an accident and found himself in hospital, looking at spinal surgery.

Tom and Rhys were mucking around before dinner, when the joking went horribly wrong. "We always wrestle," admits Tom. "All the boys have had a few bruises from it – it's just become the thing to do. We muck around a lot."

Rhys explains what happened. "I was just about to have dinner and Tom and I were mucking around like always and we started wrestling..." Tom quietly adds, "I think I was changing songs on the stereo when Rhys shoved me from behind."

The two strenuously deny it was anything other than the usual malarkey they both regularly engage in and say the next few moments went quickly, but led to an event they never could have expected.  "I tried to flip Tom over me," Rhys revealed. "He was trying to flip me over his shoulders and I flung him back onto the couch," admits Tom. "My neck was in a weird position and I ended up landing on my head with Tom's body weight on me, plus my own," Rhys continues. What happens next is shocking.

"I heard two big cracks and my entire body went numb for a few seconds," says a still shell-shocked Rhys. "I didn't know what I had done. I took a few steps, then sat down - and my neck completely seized up."

Rhys was then whisked to hospital by the Supermodel team. "I was put in a neck brace immediately," he reveals. "It was a bit embarrassing actually!" Doctors carried out tests in order to find out what was wrong. "I did an x-ray and the doctor told me they found a dislocation in my vertebrae," says Rhys. "He said it could mean I had to have surgery."

While Rhys was reeling from the news, he was more stunned by something else. "I confessed to the doctor that I was wrestling someone half my size when I was hurt. That was even more embarrassing than anything else I was dealing with!"

But, ever the cruiser, Rhys says once he knew he was being looked after, he managed to chill out... for a while, at least. "Actually, they put me on morphine and I was loving life!" he grins. "But no, it was scary. I was lying motionless on a bed, freaking out, thinking I might have to go into surgery..."

Soon, the doctor returned and took Rhys off to get further tests. A CAT scan showed he could avoid surgery altogether. "I was so relieved," says Rhys. "The damage was literally half an inch off being really bad."

And now? "I don't even have to wear the brace anymore," Rhys tells. "I just have to be super careful and it's really sore when I move it on some angles. It was really scary... but to be honest, it was more embarrassing than anything else!"

Tom, however, can't manage to see the funny or embarrassing side. "It's just been the worst feeling," he says of knowing he injured his close friend. "When it happened, I just kept asking him how he was and he just kept holding his neck and he was so quiet..."

But he manages to muster up a joke, claiming: "Luke bribed me to do it actually... so he could take out the competition. But unfortunately for him, I didn't finish Rhys off properly!"

Rhys is quick to add, "Look – hopefully the next catwalk will be a "robot" theme and I should be fine!"

The shorn school teacher says the worst part of the whole situation is that he wasn't able to take up a recent opportunity. "This week, for the first time in ages, I was allowed to go surfing. The surf wasn't even that good but when you haven't been out for five weeks, anything looks amazing. Instead, I had to just sit on the beach and watch."

Moving forward, Tom confesses he has been Rhys' semi-slave, in an attempt to make it up to the patient. "He hasn't been using it against me, but I have been doing more for him than normal," Tom says. And Rhys confirms the shenanigans have come to an end. "I am the geriatric of the house," he laughs. "There will be no more ‘baboon wrestling'."

*Guarding my banana stash*
Scout