Rangers legend Ally McCoist will not be entering the I’m A Celebrity.. Get Me Out Of Here jungle after getting cold feet about taking part on the ITV show for the third time.
ITV bosses have now secured a top-tier replacement for the Scots football icon as another sportsman is set to take his place. McCoist had been heavily rumoured to be making his debut in the jungle with the ITV show due to return to screens later this month.
After rejecting an invitation on Ant and Dec’s show back in 2019 and 2022, bosses were hopeful the Rangers star would accept the offer this time around but it seems it was not meant to be.
Speaking on TalkSPORT Breakfast last month, McCoist was asked by Jeff Stelling about whether his rumoured jungle appearance was true with the 62-year-old replying: “No – there’s your answer.”
Irish boxing legend and Mirror sports columnist Barry McGuigan will now take his place with the switch-up coming just in time as celebs make their final decisions in the run-up to the show’s launch.
A source remarked: “Barry is a bona-fide sporting legend and he’s a great person to have heading for the jungle. When he rose to fame in the 1980s as the WBA featherweight boxing champ he became a non-sectarian ambassador. He fought for both Ireland and Great Britain and was loved and respected on both sides of the divide. There’s not many who can say that.”
McGuigan, who held major featherweight titles from 1983 to 1986 and was crowned BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year in 1985, was also inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005.
Reflecting on Amir Khan’s ’embarrassing’ performance during a Bushtucker Trial involving a snake, McGuigan had a laugh in 2017, saying: “He was a bit embarrassing on the first task but he made up for it last night.”
Now it’s Khan’s turn, at 37, to check if his old friend fares any better. Set to join the jungle adventure this year are a stellar line-up of stars including Coronation Street’s Alan Halsall, who had to bow out last year due to a knee injury, WAG Coleen Rooney, and Love Island sensation Maura Higgins, who stepped in after Tommy Fury reconsidered his participation.
Former X Factor stalwart Tulisa Contostavlos is also among the celebrities geared up for the challenge. Ex-Strictly luminary Oti Mabuse is expected to make an appearance, as well as McFly’s Danny Jones, treading the path once taken by bandmate Dougie Poynter, I’m A Celeb’s 2011 champion.
Barry is seldom on TV lately, barring his role as a sports commentator. Yet, back in 2007 he triumphed in ITV’s Hell’s Kitchen. The boxer, now 63, maintains his fitness with consistent exercise and weight training.
A few years back, he conveyed his philosophy: “You have to fight back against ageing. As we get older, we start to develop joint problems, issue with knees and hips and ankles. You have to fight back and the way to do it is through body weight exercises, particularly lunges and squats.”
Barry and his wife Sandra endured heartache in 2019 with the devastating loss of their daughter Danika to cancer at just 33.
An ITV spokesperson declined to comment on rumours about potential jungle contestants last night.
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