While Sam Mouzer, whose "little soldier" was burned when a lump of coal popped from a fire, and E.J. Snyder, who tore his scrotum after falling from a tree branch, stayed in the game, Matt Wright wasn't so lucky. In 2017, he competed in "Naked and Afraid: XL," where he and eleven other contestants had to survive in Ecuador's brutal Amazon. Due to his hunting skills, Wright seemed like the best choice to lead his small team to survival. Though some might believe "Naked and Afraid" is fake, the fact is that Wright was seriously injured while filming his season.
Wright's frightening journey started with a pain in his foot, which felt like yet another bug bite. Unfortunately, the agony got worse, and eventually he noticed that a blister had formed. Wright tried his best to carry on, but eventually he had to swallow his pride and talk to the show's medics, who did a test and gave him pain medicine. When the results came back, it was confirmed that Wright had a flesh-eating bacterial infection, which forced him to drop out of the competition.
Though he couldn't continue in "Naked and Afraid: XL," Wright wasn't done with the show. He eventually recovered, though it was a gamble whether he would survive the ordeal, and expressed his willingness to seek redemption, ultimately returning to the "Naked and Afraid" franchise in 2018 for the sub-series "Savage."
