Hoover WMH147DF – tears in washed items – split in drum?

I have a Hoover WMH 147DF and recently clothes and a bedsheet have come out with tears in them (3cm slashes as opposed to round holes). I’ve checked the drum and there doesn’t appear to be anything stuck in it.

I noticed a split in the metal (around 2 inches) running from each end of the paddle to the back/front of the drum. This only features on 1 out of the 4 paddles. When I run my finger over the split it is quite sharp. I managed to rescue clothes that were in a wash by reducing the spin to 0 and they have come out ok (even tights). I’ve attached a picture of the split – really not sure if this is just part of the normal design or not! Also not sure if this would be capable of tearing/slashing a bedsheet!

I’m not sure if this is something an engineer can resolve as I’ve seen lots of forums re ripped clothes, although none of them seem to match my problem.

Any insights would be much appreciated!