EXCLUSIVE: Kryptonite isn't his only weakness! Superman Dean Cain invites DMTV to watch as he undergoes $10k advanced stem cell therapy on his bum knee he injured when he played pro football

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If you thought kryptonite was Superman's one and only weakness then you'd be wrong.

The Man of Steel has another problem... a bum knee.

That's the issue that has plagued Superman actor Dean Cain for the past 30 or so years.

Cain, who played Clark Kent in the hit TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, reveals he's been in constant agony ever since he injured his right knee playing professional football.

In fact the injury during a Buffalo Bills training camp before his rookie season even began in the late 1980s brought his NFL career to a shuddering halt.

Now the actor - who went on to make millions of women weak at the knees playing the dashing comic book hero - is taking steps to fix it.

Cain decided to have advanced stem cell therapy on his right knee to provide some much needed relief and he invited DailyMailTV cameras along to watch.

Dean Cain, who played Clark Kent in the TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, has revealed he has a bum knee. Cain, 52, decided to have advanced stem cell therapy on his knee to provide some much needed relief and he invited DailyMailTV cameras along to watch 

At $10,000 a pop the life-changing therapy - using Wharton's Jelly derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (WJ-MSCs) - harvested from the umbilical cord of full term babies - doesn't come cheap. Cain winced as the large needle went in behind his knee cap and for a brief moment even Superman had to catch his breath

Cain discussed his love life, his short-lived NFL career and hinted at a possible return of TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, saying: 'I've talked to Teri [Hatcher] (pictured together in 1993) about that and it's something she'd be interested in as well, so I'd love to see it happen'

The 52-year-old visited the Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center in Beverly Hills, California where a nurse administered the stem cell injections directly to the joint.

At $10,000 a pop the life-changing therapy - using Wharton's Jelly derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (WJ-MSCs) - harvested from the umbilical cord of full term babies - doesn't come cheap.

Cain winced as the large needle went in behind his knee cap and for a brief moment even Superman had to catch his breath.

The stem cells were injected deep into both sides of his right knee by Practice Director and registered nurse Charmaine Arnaud.

Speaking exclusively to DailyMailTV immediately after the treatment Cain said: 'Wow that hurt, I had to take a minute to get my breath.

'Superman is infallible but me, the actor who plays him, certainly fallible.

'I've never had any stem cells injected into me anywhere, anything at all.

'So I'm very excited at the possibility that this might make my knee feel better.'

Cain spoke of having 'chronic' pain over the years, even on set of the hit TV series which ran for four seasons from 1993-1997.

But he said as a young man he was able to deal with the discomfort and swelling and maintained a pretty active lifestyle.

'It really wasn't a problem when I was shooting Lois & Clark, occasionally it would swell up,' he recalls.

'I have played basketball for decades since then and done all sorts of athletic things. It's chronic, it's just something you constantly have to manage and be aware of it and deal with it.

Cain (pictured) reflects on the bitter blow he received when doctors looked at his injured knee after signing as a free agent for the Buffalo Bills and told him to find another career

The then 22-year-old defensive back had already injured the joint playing football at Princeton University (left and right) and had been through surgery. So when he tore his lateral meniscus in the same knee during a Bills training camp it was devastating

But Cain admits that at the time he never gave up, he always believed he would make a come back. Pictured: Cain posted this of himself and Bill Polian, who was the General Manager of the Buffalo Bills when Dean played. He wrote on Twitter that Bill 'cut me (from IR) from the @buffalobills some 30 years ago!! He’s one of the greatest in NFL history (even though he made a mistake getting rid of me!!!)'

'So my thought process here is if this does something to heal or to bring it back, it's incredible.

'I wasn't running around on set and then having trouble. I was able to run and do things real well - but it's easy to do when you're 26 to 31 - it's not so easy when you're 51 or 52.'

Cain reflects on the bitter blow he received when doctors looked at his injured knee after signing as a free agent for the Buffalo Bills and told him to find another career.

The then 22-year-old defensive back had already injured the joint playing football at Princeton University and had been through surgery.

So when he tore his lateral meniscus in the same knee during a Bills training camp it was devastating.

'I had my lateral meniscus, the entire cartilage, removed and it had a defect on the bone, it was bone hitting bone,' he explains.

'They tried surgery to repair it and it didn't take. I was able to function and stuff, but I couldn't play in the NFL.

'They even said to me, 'if you want to play basketball with your kid when you're 40, you should find something else to do'.'

But Cain admits that at the time he never gave up, he always believed he would make a come back.

'It didn't break my heart because I didn't believe that I was finished playing...I figured, okay, you know, a couple of years on it'll get better. 'Something will happen. They'll come up with a surgery and I'll be right back at it.'

The star, however, says it took until year three or four of Lois & Clark before he finally came to the realization that he would never play in the NFL again.

'Athletes don't want to stop, you know, old boxers continue boxing until they start getting beat,' says Cain.

'Old football players continue to play until they're no longer good, look how terrible Tom Brady was last year. I take it back. He was fantastic.'

The 52-year-old visited the Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center in Beverly Hills, California where a nurse administered the stem cell injections directly to the joint.

With little hope of returning to sports, however, Cain turned to screenwriting and then acting, shooting dozens of commercials.

He also appeared on popular TV shows like Grapevine, A Different World and Beverly Hills, 90210.

His big break came in 1993 when the actor landed his biggest role as Superman.

At the height of its popularity Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was watched by an average of 15 million viewers per episode. The series ran for four seasons, ending in 1997.

'Of course this was 34 years ago,' Cain says of the knee that's caused him all the grief.

'Since then I have been able to run around and be very athletic, do a lot of things on my knee, but it's always been a problem - always had to ice it down, always gets swelled up, I've had it drained a couple of times, it's just a constant nagging injury.

The stem cells were injected deep into both sides of his right knee by Practice Director and registered nurse Charmaine Arnaud

'I was thinking about going in for another surgery and having it cleaned up again and hope something would happen and waiting for technology to catch up. Hopefully...hopefully, this is it. The idea that this might do something to bring my knee back is amazing.'

Cain says he has worked with Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center in the past, calling them his 'fountain of youth'.

And he says that when they told him about a new stem cell technology they had he was excited.

Stem cell therapy for knees is a minimally invasive treatment that can zap any discomfort and has the potential to decrease inflammation.

It can also halt the progression of the arthritic damage, repair joint cartilage, and delay or avoid knee replacement surgery.

For Cain, whose father has Parkinson's disease, the subject of stem cells has always been of interest.

'My father has been dealing with stem cells for a long time,' he said.

'His Parkinson's is very well controlled and stem cells I think played a big part in that, so I was always aware of and hoping for there to be some sort of procedure that might do some good for me.

'If it makes me feel 10% better, that's a huge victory for me.'

Cain admits age hasn't helped and his bum knee has been slowing him down in recent years.

'I'm an athlete through and through. I identify as an athlete first. So to be able to move around like a young man, again, this is something that's very attractive to me,' he said.

At the height of its popularity Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was watched by an average of 15 million viewers per episode. The series ran for four seasons, ending in 1997

BHRC Practice Director Charmaine Arnaud, who administered the injections, said she used a product called WJ10 (Wharton's Jelly 10).

She said: 'WJ10 is the most advanced, scientifically proven and the most densest form of mesenchymal stem cells from the umbilical cord of full term babies.

'It's a scaffolding product, so we're trying to build the knee back and give Dean a bit more mobility and prevent any inflammation and pain.'

The busy actor, who has seven films being released this year, says his life, along with his knee, is now on the up.

The single-father has spent the past two decades trying to fit his Hollywood career around raising his son Christopher meaning long film shoots abroad were out.

But now at almost 19 his son is set to leave for college in August opening a 'whole new world' for his dad.

'I'm a single father, I've had full custody of my son for a long, long time and raised him on my own,' Cain says proudly.

'It's a very difficult thing to do and balance that with work.

'It's been a struggle to find projects that are close to home, that don't take me away for too long or projects that he could watch and be a part of.

'So it's really been about being a father first and my career second, but he's leaving me and he's going to college, so it's a really exciting time for me because I can stick my nose back 100 percent toward work.

'I'm still gonna be a father, but he's going to be in college and he doesn't need me to make him breakfast or drive him anywhere. I'm ready to be an empty nester.'

The single-father has spent the past two decades trying to fit his Hollywood career around raising his son Christopher meaning long film shoots abroad were out. But now at almost 19 his son is set to leave for college in August opening a 'whole new world' for his dad

'I'm a single father, I've had full custody of my son for a long, long time and raised him on my own,' Cain says proudly. 'It's a very difficult thing to do and balance that with work. So it's really been about being a father first and my career second, but he's leaving me and he's going to college, so it's a really exciting time for me because I can stick my nose back 100 percent toward work'

Bachelor Cain, who has never been married, says he's also looking forward to getting back on the dating scene.

'I'm not on any dating sites. I don't have a Tinder profile. That's a lie. Whoever says they aren't...if that works out in my future that would be wonderful, if it doesn't, I'm a pretty happy guy anyway.'

And as for a possible return of hit show Lois & Clark - something that has been hinted at more than once this past few years?

'A Lois & Clark revival to me would be very exciting because we ended in a really weird place,' says Cain.

'The end of season four a baby shows up at our house and we don't know what's going on and nothing was ever explained to the fans.'

Cain says show execs wanted to make a season five but his co-star Teri Hatcher got pregnant and her pregnancy hit complications.

'She was going to have to be bedridden and they [show execs] decided to forgo that and just cancel the show which leaves us a ton of questions.'

As a result Cain believes a catch up with Lois & Clark 22 years later would be 'really interesting'.

'We would see where they are, see where their relationship is, see if they have kids. They do, in my opinion. They've worked out how to have kids and they have, nascent superpowers and having to learn how to be superheroes and things like that. It'd be a lot of fun.'

He added: 'I've talked to Terry about that and it's something she'd be interested in as well, so I'd love to see it happen.'

For more information on stem cell therapy visit the Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center at bhrcenter.com.