James McAvoy reveals he 'nearly died' after botched lung biopsy

James McAvoy says he nearly died after a 'botched' lung biopsy. The X-Men and Split star, 47, told Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast on Monday that doctors saw a shadow on his lung and wanted to biopsy it to see whether it was cancer. It wasn't, he said, which was great. 'But that was botched, and I nearly died,' he said. Two days later, while he was at home alone, his lung collapsed in bed. He spent two or three weeks in hospital and developed an infection. When initial treatments failed, McAvoy said, doctors told him they would have to cut him open 'big style' and clean him out. The scare came in 2017, shortly before he filmed Glass, the sequel to Split. McAvoy said a trainer rehabilitated him for the first four weeks. At first he could walk but couldn't run, cycle or jog. The trainer worked on functional movement and then helped him put on weight quickly to play the Beast. He has spoken briefly about the ordeal before. In a 2019 Men's Journal interview he said it nearly killed him and was a terrifying thing to go through.