George Clooney blames himself for the spinal injury he sustained on the set of his new movie, because he put on so much weight for the role.

The actor suffered excruciating pain after tearing his dura - the wrap around his spine that holds in the spinal fluid - after falling off a chair while shooting thriller SYRIANA.

But Clooney insists he would have spared himself if he'd limited the stress he put on his much heavier body.

He says, "I ate myself sick. I put on 30 pounds in 30 days, which really scared me.

"We shot that scene 20 or 30 times and in one take you actually see the desk go over and my head hit it. I think that was the time it happened. I tore my spine.

"It was my own fault. I'm 44, not 34, and I was doing all the things I could do when I was 170 pounds, not 207 pounds, so that was a big difference.

"It wasn't the fault of anybody except myself for not being very smart. I play sports and think I can take it, but I got a good wake-up call. It was dumb on my part."