Daniel Craig: I feared I was not physically capable of making final Bond film

Daniel Craig has said he feared he was not physically capable of returning to the Bond franchise to make his final movie as the spy.

The actor will return the keys to his Aston Martin after the upcoming No Time To Die after he was persuaded to return to the franchise by its longtime producer Barbara Broccoli.

After he finished previous film Spectre, Craig said he would “rather slash my wrists” than play 007 again, but asked what changed his mind, he told Entertainment Weekly: “I finished that movie with a broken leg.

“I had to question myself: Was I physically capable of doing (another one) or did I want to do another one? Because that phone call to your wife saying ‘I’ve broken my leg’ is not pleasant.”

Broccoli added: “He felt at the end of the last movie he’d kind of done it.

“I said to him, ‘I don’t think you have, I think there’s still more of the story of your Bond to tell.’ Fortunately, he came around to agree with that.”

However, Craig was injured again on the set of No Time To Die, with ankle damage that required surgery.

He said: “I was running down a floating dock, and it was wet, and I slipped, and I fell over, and my ankle exploded.

“Unfortunately, I’ve been in the same situation before and I know the feeling of a rupturing tendon. I was just like, ‘Oh, f***.’”

He added: “I’ve got a great surgeon in London who said, ‘(Have this operation) and you’ll be ready to run in 10 weeks.’

“You know, 10 weeks is sometimes the length of a movie shoot. Not on a Bond movie. It’s just a small part of it. So I was like, ‘Okay, let’s do this.’

“I was back at work in two weeks, and in 10 weeks I was throwing myself around like an idiot again.”

Craig has now confirmed his retirement as the spy with the licence to kill, telling EW: “This is going to be my last James Bond adventure, this is it, it’s over.

“But I’m, for one, incredibly happy I got the chance to come back and do another one because I feel like this movie, whatever people think of it and who knows what people think of it, everybody put everything into it.

“We did our best and it feels like that. It’s as good as it can be.”

No Time To Die is released in UK cinemas on April 2.