Nicholas Hoult recalls 'rough' moment he tore his knee ligament playing basketball

Nicholas Hoult has recalled the "rough" moment he tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during a basketball game.

The Mad Max: Fury Road actor has revealed that somebody he was playing basketball with called the emergency services for him, and he felt embarrassed when a team of firefighters turned up to tend to him at the scene.

He explained on the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard podcast that the person called 911 while he was lying on the floor moaning in pain, but he was back on his feet "hobbling" by the time the firefighters showed up.

"So eventually 10-15 minutes later, I'm up and people are helping me out the gym to get in the car to try and get home..." he recalled. "Two fire engines turn up and all these firefighters jump out with all their emergency gear and are running towards me, and I'm hobbling out. I was like, 'No guys, it's really OK, this is so embarrassing, it's fine.' They all looked at me like, 'What is your problem? Why were we called for this?'"

After briefly wondering if he overreacted at the time, Hoult insisted to host Shepard that the pain was "rough".

"It felt pretty bad. My knee just went (tearing noise) outwards," he recounted. "People kept on asking me, 'Did you hear a pop?' and I don't think (so), but I was probably shrieking in my mind at that point. It's a complete tear."

Despite his injury, the British actor went on his friend's stag do in crutches soon after and managed to play golf.

Hoult is currently seeing a physiotherapist three times a week to help strengthen his knee before he starts shooting the action movie How to Rob a Bank. He intends to undergo surgery on his ACL, which helps stabilise the knee joint, once he's finished filming the feature.

The star is currently promoting Superman, in which he plays villain Lex Luthor. The film hits cinemas on Friday.