Ozzy Osbourne Reveals Extent Of Injury Following Surgery

(hennemusic) Ozzy Osbourne is sharing details of a hand injury that required surgery and resulted in the recent postponement of four US shows on his farewell tour.

Rolling Stone reports the rocker realized he had a problem when his right thumb had swollen to "the size of an f-in' lightbulb," according to Ozzy, who says "I freaked out."

A visit to the emergency room confirmed the Black Sabbath legend had contracted a potentially deadly staph infection...and not just one, but three individual ones in his thumb and one had spread to his middle finger.

A staph infection occurs when otherwise normal germs on a person's skin find a way into a person's bloodstream, at which point they could turn deadly if not treated.

Asked how he could have gotten it. "The doctor said to me, 'Can you remember talking to someone and shaking hands?'" Osbourne recalls. "Well, I do that meet and greet at the gig and I must shake 200 hands a day. He said, 'That explains it.'"

Following surgery, the singer was sent home with a special soap for his hand and was told to soak it twice a day for about 10 days while continuing to see a specialist.

The situation saw the rocker postpone, cancel and ultimately reschedule what were to be the final four US shows of the year; stops in Mountain View, CA, Chula Vista, CA, Los Angeles, CA and Las Vegas, NV were moved to July 2019.

"I was really looking forward to doing the Hollywood Bowl," adds Osbourne. "I'm going to make those shows up next year. It could have been a lot worse. I could have been dead." Read more here.

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