Richard Hammond needs another operation 'to get a new knee' as he issues health update

Richard Hammond revealed he is "putting off" knee replacement surgery.

The Grand Tour presenter, 54, needs to undergo another operation seven years after his near-fatal car accident as he gave an update on his health woes.

Richard was driving a Rimac supercar, which can reach speeds of 220mph, around a tight bend when he lost control and the car plunged 100ft down a hill, flipped a number of times before landing upside down back in 2017.

The motor burst into flames just seconds after he managed to crawl out of the smashed window.

After a "smashed patella" the former Top Gear host was asked if he now had full range of motion in his knee.

"I have full movement but there is still a plate and 13 bolts in there which they don't want to take out because there is a lot of mass," Richard explained in a new interview this month.

He continued on Gabby Logan's Mid Point podcast: "They could have replaced the knee but I like running and they don't last that long."

She asked: "Might you need a new knee at some point?"

Richard agreed: "Oh yes. It's going arthritic now. I'd torn a bit of my meniscus and a bit of cartilage."

Gabby quizzed further: "Are you putting it off?"

"Yes," he commented. "I want to put it off as long as I know it's my last knee. I don't want a second new knee because they bond it in, don't they?"

Richard was on a practice run for a race in an electric car for the Amazon Prime show when the vehicle burst into flames.

He injured his knee and leg and in a blog entry said he had "two sleepless nights and several hours' surgery".

The crash came 11 years after the presenter suffered life-threatening head injuries in a high-speed crash as he filmed for BBC's Top Gear.

He was in a coma for two weeks after losing control of a Vampire dragster at Elvington Airfield, near York.

The presenter suffered brain injuries and was in a coma for two weeks but made a full recovery.