‘Survivor 51’s Rob Antonson Says He Hid a Sign of Infection During Medical Check

Survivor 51 player Rob Antonson voluntarily left the game in Episode 3 over concerns for his health caused by an injury he didn’t immediately disclose to the show’s medical team during filming. Survivor‘s Dr. Barry found no medical evidence of the infection Rob feared had spread from his right foot up to his knee. The tiny cut between his toes was not enough to pull him from the game, and with no traceable signs of illness, there was no cause for a medical evacuation.

Rob tells TV Insider that he had another symptom of infection that he didn’t tell the doctor or Jeff Probst about during his medical check, and it wasn’t mentioned at all in the episode.

According to Rob, an airline gate agent from Rhode Island, his lymph nodes were swollen. This furthered his belief that he had an infection from the cut on his foot. Rob’s Savu tribe mates argued that he orchestrated an elaborate lie to leave the game after the blindside against Ana Sani made him feel betrayed.

What they didn’t know was that he tried to vote himself out before a vote for Ana was even read, but producers had to remind him that voting for yourself isn’t allowed in Survivor. Rob says that the Ana blindside had nothing to do with his decision to exit, and he maintains that his injury was worse than it seemed.

Here, Rob breaks down his decision to leave and his decision to conceal his alleged swollen lymph nodes from the medical team. Plus, he reacts to Probst’s “Field Notes” about the episode, in which he argued that Rob hit a common mental roadblock during days four, five, and six of the game that many players have to try to overcome. “My hope for Rob is that he can look back on this without regret,” Probst said. “My concern is that, once he’s home and the pressure is off, he’ll wish he would have dug a little deeper.”

Here’s what Rob had to say.

You left the game because you were concerned about your health. Did you get your foot and your leg checked out after you left? And what happened there?

Rob Antonson: I can’t really talk about what happened. I mean, they checked me on the show, and then I thought to myself, I hurt myself Day 3 walking into the ocean, and I grew up with the mentality, “Suck it up, don’t say sh*t, and just deal with it.” And that’s what I did. I dealt with that the whole time running the competitions with my leg screwed, my foot screwed, and I just went with it. And it just got worse. I didn’t tell the docs, I didn’t tell the tribe, and that’s something I feel like I’ll always regret in this game of Survivor. And then it came to a boiling point at the end, where I tried to vote myself off due to my leg. But again, nobody knew because I didn’t tell anybody. And then it came to the edit where I’m injured on the beach, and then I’m leaving.

I don’t blame everybody for being like, “Wow, Rob quit,” because nobody knew about the injury. Nobody knew about anything. And that’s my bad. But again, that’s how I was brought up. I should have brought it up to the doc. Leaving the island and going back to where I had to go to, I can’t talk about. But again, people have to realize, some of these people, die-hard Survivor fans, they have to realize that when you leave the island, you don’t really leave the island. You don’t go home, you don’t go talk to your kids, you don’t go talk to your family. I was going another eight days away from them. So, some people would say I’m a quitter, but why am I quitting? They’re saying, “You quit because of your kids,” but I couldn’t talk to my kids. I couldn’t go right to my kids. Anyways, it is what it is.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Survivor (@survivorcbs)

You mentioned in the episodes that you were missing your family. At least in what we saw, that was your motivation to vote for yourself in Episode 2. But you’re saying it was the injury combined with that?

It was not combined with that. I always miss my kids. I mean, you talk about my kids, I always cry. I’m a dad of three, but I’m one of those dads that’s more involved than most. There’s times my wife flies off to go work, and I’m with my kids alone for a week or so. And I feel like I’m a Super Dad. Of course I miss my kids, but I would never leave a game for my kids or my family because I’m there for my family. I’m there to win $ 1 million. I’m there to set my kids up good. I’m there to set my wife up good. So, it was never, “Oh, I got to leave for my kids.” Because again, it goes back to, “I’m going to take myself out of the game for my kids.”

But in reality, again, I don’t see my kids for another eight days. I can’t even talk to them. So, there’s no reason to go, “Oh hey, I’m just going to quit this game.” It goes back to, again, I was injured Day 3. I didn’t tell anybody. Again, CBS, Survivor, they have to make a TV show, and they need stuff to edit. So, if I’m providing them no stuff to edit, then what do you want to do? Then at the end, it shows that I just left with a magical injury. So, it’s my fault that I didn’t say anything, and then I’ve got to deal with everything that’s going on right now.

So, your foot was hurting you when you made this plan to save Eric Macksoud and take yourself out?

Day 3, when I went in the ocean, I stepped on something. My foot was blowing up. I tried to sleep at night. I was getting chills. I was waking up all the time. I barely slept. And then as the days went on, it was coming up my leg and into my kneecap. So, I’m like, something’s seriously wrong. I mean, my lymph nodes were swollen. Something’s going on. But again, I was brought up with that “don’t b*tch about it” [mentality], you just deal with it. I was one back in the day that had my mouth wired for three months, and nobody knew. Nobody knew. I just dealt with it. I was rinsing down Chinese food in a blender and just sucking it with a straw. That’s just how I was brought up. It was stupid in the game because, again, nobody knew, and the final edit looks ridiculous.

Your tribe mates theorized that you orchestrated a quit because you felt betrayed and you were upset with how the game was going. They think that you were lying about the injury to try to get out of the game. How did it feel to watch that in the episode last night?

They have every reason to think I’m lying because I never complained about the injury, so they just think it’s a magical injury. I would probably think the same if I was on the island in their shoes. I would think, “Wait, what the hell? Rob wasn’t injured. He didn’t say anything.” But again, in this game of Survivor, you don’t talk about everything. I didn’t want to let them know I was weak. I didn’t want to let them know I was injured. It’s stupid now because it comes down to the edit, and they’re like, “You look like a quitter,” but I would never quit. And when it comes to my kids, again, leaving the show, you’re not going right to your kids and right to your family and running into their arms. You’re just not doing that.

You did ultimately decide to quit though because Jeff and the medical team said that there was no reason to pull you out of the game, medically speaking. So, what was the reason behind your decision to exit the game?

I mean, when it comes to quitting, I feel like you just quit for no reason. You’re just like, “I’m out. I can’t deal with this sh*t. I’m out.” I mean, I left due to my injury. Yeah, sometimes they’ve got to [medically evacuate] and pull you, but they have their certain circumstances that they’re going to pull you based on injury. They don’t know how I’m feeling inside.

If it’s something like an infection, they’re not inside my body. They haven’t been with me when I haven’t slept, when I’m having chills, when I’m having swollen lymph nodes, all that stuff. They don’t know because, again, I never told them. They don’t know how I’m feeling in my body. So, they’re going to do their job, but at the same time, I got to do what’s best for my family. And I have three kids; I’ve got to raise my kids. I don’t want something to happen to me when infection’s a silent killer. Infection could just kill you.

My wife’s a nurse. It’s probably bad she told me all these horror stories that they’re stuck in my head about infections and stuff like that. So, I had to make a decision that’s best for my family. People sit on their ass on the couch at home, and they’re like, “Oh, I can’t believe you just leave. He’s got an opportunity of a lifetime.” Yeah, but buddy, I’m a dad of three. I can’t risk going home. God forbid I lose a foot, or it goes to my heart or something like that. A doctor’s never going to see it just examining me on an island. He’s not going to know what’s going on in my body.

We didn’t see in the episode that your throat was swollen, like you say. Did the doctor check that?

I didn’t tell them about the swollen [lymph] nodes. I mean, I know when it’s truly swollen, something’s going on; your body’s fighting something. No, again, I didn’t go to the doctor.

Dr. Barry didn’t check that?

At the end, no, because I didn’t complain about it. But throughout the show, usually you go see the doctor [Survivor players meet with medical before and after challenges for a general wellness check]. The doctor’s like, “Everything good? Yeah. Good, good.” So, again, I’m doing all these challenges. I’m doing the reward challenge. I’m doing the whale challenge. Even the whale challenge, me and Sharonda [Cox] at one point, it was just me and her having a 500-pound whale on our backs and I’m stepping on sandbags in the water with the damn leg. So, I’m like, “I’m dunzo,” but I was just going with fumes. But nobody knows what’s going on because I’m just not one of those people that…

You wanted to push through it.

Yeah, because in my mind I’m like, “This for my kids, this is for my family.” But again, it just came to a point where it just can’t go on.

I don’t know if you saw Jeff’s “Field Notes,” the Instagram post on the Survivor account from last night. But I would like to get your reaction to something that he said in it. He said they couldn’t find anything medically wrong with you, but that didn’t mean you weren’t in pain. He also wondered if there was a connection between your desire to vote yourself out and this medical exit. He wrote in the notes, “My hope for Rob is that he can look back on this without regret. My concern is that once he’s home and the pressure is off, he’ll wish he would have dug a little deeper.” What’s your response to that?

Yeah, so going to the vote, I’ll paint the scenario for you. This is day five. I haven’t slept. I’ve been dealing with the pain the whole time. Don’t eat no food out there, barely any water. So, I’m in pain the whole time. You get to a point that you just get miserable. Your brain’s fried; you’re not there. People can sit on the couch and say, “Oh, I would’ve did this with it.” No, you don’t do that in a certain situation. Some people go away four or five hours without coffee, and they want to kill people. So, put yourself in my situation where it’s day five, you were injured, you were going through the pain, you had no food, no water, and you’re not sleeping at all.

I’m losing my mind. So, once I was in pain, I wasn’t talking game with anybody. So, I didn’t even know the vote switch [from Eric to Ana]. I didn’t get any leaks or cracks that it was going to be Ana. So, we go to the vote, and I’m thinking in my head, “I’m going to be this big superstar. I’m going to write down my own name. I’m going to give it to Eric, the Rhode Island connection. I’m going to let him stay in this game because he’s this diehard fan, and I’m screwed; my leg’s screwed. I’m not going to be able to do challenges. I’m just going to be a lump on a log.” So, it’s like, what’s the point? I write my name, and they tell me I can’t do it. And I’m like, “What the hell just happened?” And I didn’t even know the vote changed.

I didn’t know the vote was all Ana. I thought the vote was still all Eric. So, then after that, I’m like, “All right, I’ll still write Eric because I’m still going to go with the vote.” And it was Ana. So, it is what it is. I mean, Survivor is a crazy game. Whoever doesn’t think Survivor is real, it’s totally real. It’s craziness. You don’t know how your brain’s going to be until you put it out there and you’re going through all this crap. It’s nuts.

And Jeff said that days four, five, and six in the game is a really tough mental block that most players need to overcome. Do you feel that really got to you?

I think if I never got injured, I feel like I’d be OK because back at home, I do a lot of fasting. So, the hunger thing wasn’t that much of a factor. But again, when you’re injured and you’re in pain, you’re throwing the pain on top of everything else with the hunger and the lymph nodes. I think sleep is the biggest thing too. When you’re not getting sleep, your body’s not healing. I’m a big proponent of sleep is healing. That’s how you heal your body. So, I was getting none of that.

So, [days] four, five, six, I mean, he would know more better than me because he’s been part of all these seasons. I don’t really know about that. It makes sense if you’re not eating. Most people, they say you do the 72-hour fast and stuff of that. So, [days] four, five, six, you’re over that. So, I guess your body, you’re getting headaches, and your body’s going to a different state. So, yeah, I’d probably agree with that.

Survivor, Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS