Emmerdale’s Lisa Riley shares health update after “very bad fall”

Emmerdale star Lisa Riley has shared a health update after suffering a “very bad” fall in March. The actor, who plays Mandy Dingle on the ITV soap, suffered an accident at home, which she put down to a “slippy breakfast stool and a woollen cardi”.

Riley had surgery on her thumb following the incident, with the star later sharing a photo of her arm in a cast. Now, just over two months later, the actor has shared some good news about her recovery.

Sharing a video on Instagram on Tuesday (26 May), Riley wrote: “GREAT NEWS!!!! so I’ve just left hospital this morning and it’s nine weeks since I had my operation on my thumb… I am cast free.”

The star, who recently appeared on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, added: “[I’ve] still got my physio and doing all my exercises at home-but back on the road to recovery to all the incredible staff at @leedshospitals @nhsleeds THANK YOU!!”

The actor also shared a video in the post, where she showed off her cast-free hand while walking down a hospital corridor. With a beaming smile, she said: “Bye bye cast – thumb is free!”

Earlier this month, Riley appeared on Loose Women panel and spoke about her injury in detail, explaining that the “horrendous” injury happened just before a scheduled trip to New York City.

“They let me travel – I was more worried because I was flying to New York literally four days later,” she recalled. “So they’ve put this expandable cast on and it was Easter. Can you tell? I went for an Easter colour.”

Riley made her debut as Mandy in 1995, having a six-year stint before making a comeback in 2019 after nearly two decades away. This time, she arrived in the Dales with adoptive son Vinny Dingle in tow.

It was reported last week that Vinny, played by Bradley Johnson, was to be axed as part of a major cast shake-up. This hasn’t officially been confirmed, so it remains to be seen if there will be even more drama in the Dingle family.

Lisa Riley was rushed to hospital for surgery after suffering ‘massive damage’ during a ‘very bad fall’, she revealed on Wednesday.

The Emmerdale actress, 49, who plays Mandy Dingle in the ITV soap, fell off one of her ‘extremely slippy’ bar stools at home.

Joking that she was sober at the time, the soap star explained that her fall caused serious damage to her thumb, which led to her needing an operation to repair her Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) at Leeds General Infirmary.

Surgery-requiring damage to the UCL is caused by tearing the ligament on the inside of your thumb’s main joint.

In her post, Lisa cheerfully posed for a selfie post-procedure alongside her surgeon, Dr Thorton, and was also pictured leaving the hospital with her arm in a sling.

Alongside her Instagram post, the actress praised the NHS, branding the service ‘incredible’ and thanking the medical team who provided her care.

Lisa wrote: ‘OUR NHS @nhsengland IS INCREDIBLE…….I have to massively thank my specialist surgeon Mr Daniel Thornton at LGI LEEDS hospital and all the beautiful team, every single one of you who treated me this afternoon

‘I had a very bad fall over the weekend (no I’m sober) no drunk jokes-it was my extremely slippy breakfast stool and a woollen cardi-my left thumb took all of it.

‘So today hence the massive damage I have had my operation, surgery, treating my UCL in my Thumb repaired. (sic)’

Friends and fans flocked to her comments to wish the star a speedy recovery and share their warm comments.

Scarlet Moffatt penned: ‘Sending love chick xxxx’ while Steph McGovern wrote: ‘Oh no!! Sending love xx’.

Lisa post comes after she struggled to hold back her emotions as she opened up about her friend and former Strictly Come Dancing star Robin Windsor’s ‘downward spiral’ before his tragic death in 2024.

Robin, who passed away at the age of 44, was dropped from the BBC dancing competition after sustaining an injury during a cast party in Blackpool, which left him with a slipped spinal disk and nerve problems.

Talking to the Loose Women panel, Lisa admitted that the dancer’s ‘light went out and he felt he wasn’t wanted anymore’ after leaving Strictly and spiralled with his mental health.

She told Kaye Adams, Coleen Nolan and Janet Street-Porter: ‘Soon as he lost his job on Strictly, you saw this downward spiral in him and the light went off, the magic.

‘His mental health started to struggle, he felt that he wasn’t wanted anymore, he felt that he couldn’t get a boyfriend anymore – all he ever wanted…

‘I just wish that he could hear how loved he was, I said that at his funeral.’

Looking back on their friendship, Lisa added: ‘He is my one in a million friend and meeting him I just knew he was, like my firework and my male me. It’s been really hard since he passed and it’s been two years.

‘Last Thursday was the anniversary, two years have gone by and you think to yourself ‘How could I have lost such a wonderful person in my life? Why was his life taken so, so soon?’ He was too young to die.’

She continued: ‘It was a friendship like no other and I said at his funeral ‘Why would he not want to be here anymore?’

‘With suicide, it’s hard because you don’t understand why they’re going to take their life.

‘I will always have him, I said it before, he was my backpack in life, I keep him with me, and I want to keep that going forever.’