Former England rugby star Mike Tindall admitted he has been voting for friend James Haskell to tackle bushtucker trials during his stint on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
Tindall said Haskell, 34, is “doing well” on the ITV reality show, after having been made team leader by his fellow jungle campmates.
He revealed he has watched every episode of I’m A Celebrity so far and said he hopes Haskell, who also played rugby for England, is forced to take on more bushtucker trials.
Tindall told the PA news agency: “I think my boy’s doing well. I think he’s getting a little bit hungry but I think Ian Wright’s the ‘hangriest’, as it were, out of the group.
“It’s always a good sign when he gets picked by the group to be the team leader. I have watched every episode but all I need to do if I do miss anything is keep up with his Instagram and I find out everything anyway! He’s got someone posting for him.
“I have been voting for him to get in the trials, anything to see him in a little bit of pain would always make me happy but it shows he’s doing all right, he’s not had to do so many as yet. But the more he has to do, the better.”
Tindall revealed he enjoyed watching Haskell, who is married to television presenter Chloe Madeley, in an eye-watering bushtucker trial which forced him to use his mouth to pass a pigs’ testicles to campmate Roman Kemp.
“That was good to see,” he said.
“I don’t know what’s worse – having your head in rats or… at least with rats there’s only going to be six of them or something, whereas if you get cockroaches there could be 60,000 of them. Cockroaches can get up your nose and stuff whereas I’m not sure rats can.”
Tindall, who is married to the Queen’s granddaughter Zara Phillips, backed former Wasps RFC and Northampton Saints player Haskell to use experience from his playing days to manage the meagre food supply in the jungle.
Tindall said said: “When it comes to nutrition he’s very, very strict and he’s going to take care of that himself. He’ll definitely find every calorie that he can possibly get.
“He knows exactly his calorie count every time he eats so he’s going to be very strict on that from now on.”
Tindall, 41, was speaking at an event hosted by the charity Rugby For Heroes, of which he is a patron.
Rugby World Cup-winner Tindall refused to rule out a stint in the jungle.
He said: “There’s no plans right now but whenever I’m asked questions like that I always say ‘never say never’ because you never know what happens. But there’s no immediate plans to be going in there, that’s for sure.”
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! continues on ITV.
