Hollywood hunk Josh Duhamel has had his basketball injury written into the plot of his hit TV show LAS VEGAS - because producers didn't want to leave him out of the series.

The actor ruptured his achilles just before Christmas (03) playing basketball and he's currently working with a trainer to fix his leg.

But he couldn't take time off American TV's new megahit, in which he co-stars with Molly Sims and James Caan, so the show's writers came up with a plot that allowed him to hobble around on crutches.

He says, "My character gets shot in the foot and it was actually fun for a couple of episodes with this foot thing and the crutches and hobbling around.

"But then they were like, `OK, we need you to walk again; the joke's over.'"

27/01/2004 02:32