I'm pretty sure someone else on here said it was a skiing accident.
Have a poke around on the discussions for this episode and the couple preceding it, it's in there somewhere...

Then again, it could have been hockey - RDA has a 'knocks and scrapes' list to rival Evel Knievel...

Yeah, probably skiing (or perhaps while on a ladder) - a far more dangerous sport/activity. I played some very competitive hockey over 30 years (at college and the senior level) ... and never lost any teeth, nor suffered a broken bone, or even a cut bad enough to require a stitch. Sure it can get rough at times, but the excellent (expensive) equipment is there for a reason and protects you very well.

Having said that, I might add the game has changed immensely over the past ten years. Of particular note, the skate technology has made the game much faster, the (pro) players much larger and with more muscle mass, and the hockey stick technology more efficient in propelling the puck much faster.

Also the equipment is made of a harder material these days and combined with the above mentioned data and (not so) recent rule changes (in particular the elimination of the center line for passing the puck which further speeds up the game) has culminated in more injuries and in particular many more concussions.

There's been many studies done on how to lessen the load and slow things down a tad .... but jury is still out and something must be done soon - to lesson the F=MxA equation factor.

The F in that equation stand for Fracture

I know this is off topic, but as a fellow hockey lover I just have to say that I absolutely love your user name! Go SAK AND Sakic!!

Back on topic, I have to say that I voted excellent on this episode. It is definitely one of my all-time favorites (maybe because it was one of the first I saw?? Isn't it weird how the first ones we see often tend to be some of our favorites? Okay, back on topic again...) and although it is much slower paced and not even close to being as funny as some of my other favorites, I too am one of the self-confessed fans of "MacWhumpage" . I like when main characters get injured once in a while because it seems much more realistic than the ones that waltz through dangerous situation after dangerous situation and never come out with barely more than a scratch. Absolutely FANTASTIC acting by RDA!!!

I wonder if the writers had already written this script and RDA just HAPPENED to have a broken arm or if they had to write it specifically BECAUSE of his arm? That wouldn't give them a lot of time to practice the episode before filming.

Back to his real broken arm though - I just find it odd that I can't find anything about it online somewhere, usually you can find out that sort of stuff about actors...

My guess is the first one, because they made a valiant attempt to hide it instead of incorporating it like they did in 'Every time she smiles'. That said, it's not likely that a troubleshooter, even one as good as Mac, would have been sent on such a dangerous assignment with a busted arm and so they really HAD to disguise what had happened...

RDA makes a good job of hiding it - he uses that arm a fair bit before Mac gets shot down. Then again, it must have been pretty much healed by this point - it's the third episode in which he's got the cast on it!

RDA does use the arm a lot in the early part of the episode, but still has a cast on. In any of the face or full body shots if you look close you can see that the skin is never exposed on the right arm between the glove and sleeve. Plus his wrist doesn't bend. The close-ups where he's using his hands early in the episode must be a double.

Yes your right Mela. You have to look pretty closely to see it though.

There is one aspect which they goofed up on though.... MacGyver was shot in the shoulder and it made pretty clear that this is the only injury he had, so why does he have a cast on his arm ?

I'll have to watch it again to be sure but when Mac is clearly in pain, I'm pretty sure Persis Khambatta's character asks him if it's his shoulder or his arm that's hurting him, implying that he'd damaged both...
I'll check and confirm

They're definitely trying to hide the cast though, so it's a clear mistake on their part whenever it's noticeable...

If he had broken his arm in the fall they should have shown it being cast or wrapped or something to explain it. They wrote a line to explain how MacGyver's clothes changed from when he passed out to when he woke up the next morning, so you'd think they would do the same to explain his arm injury.

The F in that equation stand for Fracture

or = Fun! Depends if you're the 'giver' or 'receiver' of the punishment.

Incidentally, there was a policeman (who had given me a 'few' traffic violation tickets in the past) and happened to play on a rival team in our local recreational league once upon a time. The beauty of the sport is that you can really 'paste' & 'wallpaper' another player 'legally' into the boards - if/when you ever get a chance and, of course, they happen to have the puck in their possession.

And so, let's just say that I eventually got a bit of payback for those, imo, petty road infractions.

I know this is off topic, but as a fellow hockey lover I just have to say that I absolutely love your user name! Go SAK AND Sakic!!

Oh, thanks NewMacFan! Mac's love for hockey and SAKs absolutely had to be honored somehow, someway me thoughts ..... & then I started thinking Joe 90 , Joe Cool , Joe Camel ...... Joe SAKic!

It would have made more sense, wouldn't it!

Then again, having rewatched it, Mac's holding his wrist rather than his shoulder when Ahmed finds him and Mum does indeed ask him whether it's his arm that's hurting him, to which he replies, 'Just the shoulder,' so she has a look and decides it's poker time...

I dunno, maybe it's implied that he's broken his arm in the fall or it could just be dodgy storytelling!

Did anyone else notice how nonchalant MacGyver was with the death of that guy that came back to the house? He didn't even seem to care that he was dead. The way he just rolled him over with his foot, he didn't care at all. This is a real contradiction to the whole "life is precious" undertone of this episode.

MacGyver is harping on about he didn't kill the solder because he didn't have to, meanwhile he was the direct cause of a man's death and couldn't care less about it.

I really like this episode so I've watched it quite a bit. You're right that you have to look really close to notice the difference in the way his wrist bends. They did a good job hiding it. I have looked for it in this case which is why I noticed.

As for the arm injury, yes the Afgan lady does ask if its his arm or shoulder, plus the Russian soldier reports to his superiors that the American was shot twice, once in the arm and once in the shoulder.

Aye, I did.
It does seem out of character, though perhaps an implied thug/rapist falling on his own gun doesn't seem like such an injustice...
Even so, I'd have expected Mac to turn him over carefully.

I dunno, it does seem un-Mac-like.

I admit it seems unMac-like about his reaction to the guy's death, but we also have to remember that at the time Mac is Very injured. Chances are even Mac would not quite be himself having just been shot twice and crash landing a hang glider.

That's true.
The combination of shock and pain from being shot and (possibly - jury's still out!) breaking his arm in the crash could make him behave out of character.
Also, injured as he was, maybe bending down and lifting the guy over carefully just wasn't possible.

Dunno

We've seen him pretty badly knocked around before, but he always maintains that high level of regard for life. It just didn't seem to be there at all in this scene.

Really? What's the third one? I think I must have missed it

Really? What's the third one? I think I must have missed it

Good Question. I don't recall seeing a cast on his arm in The Enemy Within which would have to be the first episode. I've only seen it in Every Time She Smiles and To Be a Man.

Really? What's the third one? I think I must have missed it

Good Question. I don't recall seeing a cast on his arm in The Enemy Within which would have to be the first episode. I've only seen it in Every Time She Smiles and To Be a Man.

Aye, I only noticed it because someone else mentioned it in the nitpicks...

There's a scene in 'The Enemy Within' where Mac is in the hospital, eating something (egg roll?). He has his jacket draped ever so casually over his arm, but if you look carefully it's actually hiding the cast on his arm

Must have been a pick up shot taken after the rest of the episode had been filmed.

Interesting! That pinpoints when the injury happened.

But begs the question of how, because I don't think they have breaks between episodes do they? Or maybe they do? Anyone know for sure?

I'm copying this across from the nitpicks on 'To be a Man'. OldFan seems pretty sure how it happened:

Skiing seems the most likely cause - albeit he does seem 'very' accident prone (and what's all the chatter on the internet about usage of pain killers?).

In a 2002 interview with Vicky Gabereau, he seems kinda surprised that he 'wasn't' injured in his latest skiing adventures ... which seems to indicate that he's been injured in the past while tackling the slopes.

Full interview HERE

He does seem accident prone - I think he's one of those people who just shouldn't go out without wearing a suit of armour!
I can sympathise with that because I'm a bit accident prone myself

I should think he does creak a bit with the number of knocks and scrapes he's accumulated over the years, but chatter on the internet about painkillers? What's the story there?

High powered pain killers for his last lot of foot sugary were the main reasons for his massive weight gains a few years back.

There's a discussion here somewhere about it, but I think the basic story is that foot surgery (or the kind he had) is one of the most painful surgeries to endure and the specific painkillers he was on during recovery have a side effect of causing weight gain and this coupled with his mobility (can't do much when you can't stand up) lead to the big weight gain.

The Vicky Gabereau inteview was from 2002. She continues to pry in on the accident/pain thing and asks him (for all intents and purposes) if he's in chronic pain .... which he says 'yeah' but states that he doesn't take anything for it anymore .... which might imply that he had had some sort of dependency on something in the past.

I had to go back and look at the scene as I didn't notice anything unusual about it at all in first passing. He used his foot because he was in upper body pain and quite likely in shock. Additionally he knew the extra dangers that the presence of the 'body' represented and he had much bigger fish to fry in a finite period of time. What to do? Let the boy, soon to be a man, to handle it all and in the Muslim tradition. Perfect.