Actress Daryl Hannah suffered a serious knee injury on the set of new basketball movie The Hot Flashes after training up to 20 hours a day for the project.

In the comedy, the Kill Bill star plays a former high school athlete who forms a middle-aged basketball team with Brooke Shields and Wanda Sykes.

The trio trained with professional players at the University of Southern California (Usc) prior to the shoot, and the 52 year old admits her body took a real beating preparing for the role.

She tells the New York Post, "Learning to play, we trained with Usc's basketball team. Pros play for one hour, but we trained in 20-hour days. Brooke needed an icing unit. My knee got twisted. I had to have fluid removed, and now there's no Acl (anterior cruciate ligament) ligament in it. It was really tough... I did my own stunts, but it was so difficult. I didn't understand why we had to train so hard."

But she admits the training paid off - and now she likes to shoot hoops at home: "At least I can definitely make a basket. I almost can't miss one. Today I have a hoop in my backyard."