By John Powell – GlobalTV.com

Survivor 44 castaway Bruce Perreault knows a little about head injuries and concussions. He was a football coach for 11 years after all. When Bruce hit his head so hard while trying to slide under an obstacle during the first challenge of Survivor 44 he was sure he suffered a concussion of some sort. The actual cut he received was the least of his worries at the time.

“The traumatic aspect of it was just by the force of my body. Essentially, my entire body weight injured my head and my neck,” he said.

As fans saw on last night’s episode Bruce was evaluated by the Survivor medical team and allowed to go back to camp once the challenge was over. While he was there, his head continued to pound incessantly. The medical staff advised Bruce to rest but he kept working.

“I didn’t allow my body to start doing what it needed to do. There was one moment in time that I was doing something and I jolted forward and when I tilted forward it was like having a migraine and it would not quit. It wasn’t just my head. My neck hurt. My spine hurt,” Bruce recalled wincing as he described the pain he was going through at the time.

Once he was removed from the game he underwent a CT Scan and he was diagnosed with cluster headaches but no severe damage to his head, spine or neck. Looking back, Bruce cannot thank the Survivor medical team enough for all their support and care.

“I was their main focus not the show. I think they did an absolutely amazing job,” said a thankful Bruce.

After witnessing Bruce’s Survivor journey end so tragically fans online have rallied behind him. They want him to have a second chance and he is going to get one.

“Jeff Probst has extended an open invitation to me to come back and play again,” he said. Bruce is definitely going to take Probst up on is offer as he wants to show viewers what he is truly capable of.

Because of his injury Bruce didn’t actually bond with his tribemates, talk strategy, play the Survivor game. Seeing how he was portrayed though, he is pleased with his edit. He is also thankful he met everyone on the Tika tribe.

“The only insight that I can give because I wasn’t in the right frame of mind and I wasn’t able to have all the conversations that I wanted to, they were absolutely amazing! Every single person brought something that was authentic to the tribe and that made the tribe so great. In my my personal and humble opinion, we were a great tribe,” he said.

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