Despite his extreme phobia of spiders, Shane Warne has been forced to hold a massive South African tarantula on Wednesday night’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! 

The cricketer’s well-documented fear of spiders is so extreme there were rumours he had a “no-spider clause” written into his contract for the Channel Ten reality show.

But Warne made clear the rumours were untrue based on the way he dealt with the challenge of holding a South African baboon spider named Britney.

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The 46-year-old appeared visibly terrified in the lead-up to the stunt as a handler told him to “control the shaking” of his body. 

After his four fellow contestants held the spider for 30 seconds, Warne stepped up to the plate and began to cry in the moments before he held the “highly venomous tarantula”.

“This is the hardest thing I’ll ever have to do in my life,” Warne said before the challenge.

“This is like my ultimate, this is the ultimate, you can’t test me with anything else that’s harder.

“Oh, man. I have to stop my hand shaking.”

Watch the traumatic video below:

VIDEO: In the moment of the series, @ShaneWarne faces his biggest phobia. #ImACelebrityAUhttps://t.co/g7tiyOhNe1

— #ImACelebrityAU (@ImACelebrityAU) March 9, 2016

Thankfully for Warne, fellow contestant and “mate” Brendan Fevola came over to try and distract Warne while the spider was on his hand.

“Guess what? You know we’re going to have chocolate and ice cream,” Fevola said in an effort to make Warne feel calm. 

Warne sat with his head in his hands for the whole 30 seconds the spider sat on him.

He could be heard sobbing and struggling to breathe for the challenge’s duration.

Once the 30 seconds elapsed he screamed: “Get it off! Get it off!”.

He then continued to cry alone and away from the group while hunched over for minutes after the challenge was completed.

The contestants enjoy their reward, spider milkshakes, after the challenge.

He then returned to the group: “I’m sweating so much,” he said.

“Sorry, I went into shock. Yeah. I couldn’t, I just couldn’t do anything. I was in shock.”

The reward for the five contestants holding the spider? They were treated with spider-fizz milkshakes.

“I think after this, the whole of Australia should drink a spider in Shane’s honour,” contestant Anthony Callea said while the group guzzled their reward. 

“Get out your ice cream, soft drinks and sprinkles and make a spider in honour of Shane.”

In the past Warnie has been open about his arachnophobia, even appearing in a Sportsbet ad in 2014 that made fun of his fear.