Sue Cleaver MasterChef finger injury: 'It's only day one'

The TV Guide reports that the Sue Cleaver MasterChef finger injury happened almost immediately: the former ITV soap star, who played Eileen Grimshaw in Coronation Street between 2000 and 2025, sliced through her right index finger on day one of filming Celebrity MasterChef, before viewers had even seen her cook a single dish.

Cleaver, 62, will appear in the Tuesday 1 September episode of the BBC cooking competition. She was preparing a salad when she chopped vegetables with a Japanese knife her son had bought her specifically for the show, and the blade caught her right index finger. On-site medics were on hand, she was patched up, and she carried on competing.

Sue Cleaver MasterChef finger injury: ‘I’m panicking a bit’

Fans will hear Cleaver’s reaction when the episode airs. ‘Oh, plaster already. I’ve cut myself. It didn’t take long,’ she says, before adding: ‘I nearly cut my finger off, and it’s only day one. I’m panicking a bit.’

According to The Sun, Celebrity MasterChef judge Giorgio Locatelli offered a swift diagnosis: ‘That’s a Japanese knife. It’s a very sharp one.’ It is, in fairness, hard to argue with that assessment.

Cleaver was competing in the episode alongside Una Healy and Melvin Odoom, so she had every reason to want to keep all ten fingers in working order. The good news is that the injury did not force her out of the kitchen, and she was able to continue once she had been seen to.

She was not alone: Joe Pasquale also suffered cuts in the opening episode

Cleaver’s mishap was not the only bloodshed in the Celebrity MasterChef kitchen. TV Guide reports that Joe Pasquale repeatedly cut his fingers during the opening episode of the series, suggesting the knives were causing havoc well before Cleaver’s solo incident on day one.

Between the two of them, the show’s medics appear to have had a busy start to the series. It puts a new spin on the phrase “cooking under pressure.”

Jay McGuinness exits after kitchen double disaster

Meanwhile, Celebrity MasterChef fans were left unhappy following the first elimination on 18 August, when Jay McGuinness became the first contestant to leave the competition after a difficult pair of challenges.

During the first challenge, McGuinness served a cheesecake that would not come out of its tin. Giorgio advised him that more butter would help. Things did not improve from there: McGuinness then cooked a mushroom pie, and Giorgio, Grace Dent and guest judge Paddy McGuinness flagged that timing would be everything if it was to work. It was not. Giorgio noted that the pastry had ‘cracked a lot’, adding: ‘It has definitely got a problem. It’s too crumbly and is almost sandy. You’ve added too much fat into the mixture.’

The Wanted singer was subsequently told he had not made it through to the quarter-final. Viewers felt the decision was harsh, with many suggesting another contestant should have gone instead, but the judges held firm.

Celebrity MasterChef continues on Wednesday 26 August at 9pm on BBC One, with Cleaver’s episode, bandaged finger and all, set to air on Tuesday 1 September.

Georgia Parkes started in women's magazine editorial and moved sideways into freelance lifestyle writing when the industry contracted. She spent seven years across two national titles, covering everything from celebrity interviews to consumer trends, and did a year on the branded content side before deciding she preferred having opinions to suppressing them. She writes about wellness, fitness, food, relationships, and the small absurdities of modern living that somehow require a 1,200-word feature. She is good at spotting a trend before it peaks and calling it out three months after everyone else has moved on. Georgia lives in South London. She has tested more wellness products than she has had hot dinners, and considers both claims equally dubious.

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