Katherine Kelly once had a bizarre accident that almost ended her career.

The 43-year-old actress, who played rough diamond Becky Granger in Coronation Street from 2006 to 2012 and has since starred in dramas such as Gentleman Jack and Cheat, admitted that she hit her tailbone on a table at a friend’s house when she was 19 and thought nothing of it until she couldn’t get out of bed during a camping holiday.

She said: “I couldn’t get out of my sleeping bag. I had forgotten about the previous incident. I couldn’t get out of bed. My flatmate had to lift me out of bed. I went to the GP and was sent to a physiotherapist. Back home I went to an osteopath. This seemed to help for a while but then became problematic. My mum sent me her migraine tablets at home. I was in enormous pain. I coordinated taking the tablets with my PE lessons. I go from physiotherapist to osteopath. Everyone I saw said it was something different. I couldn’t predict when it would strike. It was almost like I was lying because one day I was in pain and the next I wasn’t. I knew I had to leave drama school.”

The NTA winner added that her condition went “untreated” for 18 months and the base of her spine was “twisted”, but she eventually found a physiotherapist called Kevin Ludlow who helped her and she has been problem-free for a decade.

She added on the Three Little Words podcast: “Being in that pain every day and not being able to walk… It was nerve damage. What made it worse was that it hadn’t been treated for 18 months. The base of my spine had twisted to compensate for that because I’d been on so many painkillers. He believed in rehab exercise. Long term, he said, I would need to do yoga or Pilates, and he was right.

I haven’t had any problems for 10 years.”