British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal is to undergo a hip replacement operation.

The Tv star is just 47, 20 years below the U.K.'s average age of 67 for such procedures, but his doctors have informed him years of heavy martial arts workouts have taken a major toll on his body.

He tells Britain's Daily Mail, "My surgeon looked at my X-rays and said all he could see was just bone on bone - there was no fluid at all. He told me that if I wanted to keep doing my job there was no choice - I had to have the op... My hip problem is a combination of martial arts, a stretched leg which put my hips out of alignment and my (bad) back."

However, Blumenthal is determined to put off scheduling the big operation, adding, "I want to put it off as long as possible. Partly because there's no guarantee how long the new hip will last."