Dave MacLeod: sitting things out as his ankle heals. Photo: Richard Else

Climber Dave MacLeod’s plans for the televised climb on a Hebridean cliff were hit this week when he was injured by a falling rock.

The Lochaber-based rock-climber, rated Britain’s best by many, is sitting nursing a badly gashed and swollen ankle after the incident earlier in the week on Sròn Uladail on Harris.

On his blog, he said: “On Monday, while descending the lines after a session on the Sròn, a breezeblock-sized flake at the belay 10 feet above me was levered off by an unusual direction of pull. It dropped straight onto my bare ankle, splitting it open in a 3cm gash down to the bone.

“After making the most of the rare opportunity to inspect my own skeleton, I abseiled down and started to hurt. Five stitches later, I’m in less than perfect shape for climbing, or indeed anything right now.”

The climber, famous for his Echo Wall route on Ben Nevis’s north face, adopted the stoicism of Monty Python’s Black Knight after the incident, saying: “It’s just a flesh wound as they say. A few stitches in one’s ankle shouldn’t bother one’s ability to climb a five-pitch E8 on live telly, should it? So I’m doing nothing new but storing up energy – and ibuprofens – for the big day on Saturday.”

The broadcast is due to start at 1.35pm tomorrow, Saturday, on BBC Two in Scotland, with a BBC HD screening later in the afternoon. It will also be streamed live on the BBC’s website and will be available on the corporation’s iPlayer.

Preparations for the filming and broadcasting of the attempt, in which MacLeod will be joined by extreme sports expert Tim Emmett on a new route on Britain’s biggest overhanging crag, are well advanced.

The climber said yesterday, during his forced break: “It’s day three of sitting with my foot propped up, ice pack and pill taking regime. On one hand, it’s quite nice to detach myself from the craziness going on around me as the live outside broadcast machine steps up a gear each day.

“But it’s kind of weird to say the least when for weeks it’s just been me hanging about alone on the Sròn, and now I’m the only one left behind!

“Excellent to see the whole team of about 55 people all in one room last night. The size of the production really starts to dawn! Whether it works out on the day might, among other things of course, come down to how much I can get my swollen, hurting ankle to calm down in the next 48 hours. Better get another ice pack.”

The Triple Echo production team is behind the project.