Strictly fears for star as they cut down on training after hospital dash

14 October 2023 , 15:51

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Strictly Come Dancing worry as star cuts down on training amid low scores and injury (Image: BBC)

Strictly Come Dancing star Jody Cundy has cut down on training hours after suffering an infection.

The Paralympian, who had a leg amputated when he was three years old, recently went to the hospital after his leg swelled up with an infection. Due to the injury, he had to miss a couple of rehearsals. He was also ordered to follow new training rules while rehearsing for the live shows.

According to bookies, the cyclist and his dance partner Jowita Przystal are the top choice to be eliminated ahead of Love Island star Zara McDermott. During week three, Jody and Zara finished at the bottom of the leaderboard after failing to impress the judging panel.

Jody recently had to go to the hospital due to an infected limb (PA)

He's also finished at the bottom of the leaderboard (BBC/Guy Levy)

In order to keep fit and healthy, Jody had to slow down on training which could make perfecting the dances more difficult for tonight's live show. "Three hours is the longest (cycling) training session I ever do," he said. "We're not really riding for the whole three hours… dancing we've been doing for seven hours straight. And I've been in the leg the whole time.

"It's weight-bearing as well. I've just been sweating in the leg, not been looking after it, then it's got a little bit sore and then that's got infected. We make sure I take the leg off every couple of hours, clean it, make sure everything is alright." Speaking on It Takes Two, Jowita added: "We do more breaks.

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"So I am nurse Jowita. We do 15 minutes of cleaning. I say 'now is the time to take off the leg'. So we do that, we clean, we make sure everything is fine. If anything is bothering his knee, 'okay stop, nurse Jowita to the rescue'. I'm like 'okay, we need to fix it'. We're taking care of it. So far, so good."

Discussing his injury earlier this month, he said he noticed his limb getting irritated and swollen when he removed his prosthetic leg after a tiring day of rehearsals. He said: "It's been a week of highs and lows. The first two days have absolutely flown by. At the end of day two, we had done the full routine a number of times which I had not done for the previous two dances.

"I was really confident that I could perfect everything for Saturday. I got home on Tuesday night and took my leg off and was like 'Oh, that's quite sore'." He added: "I didn't really think too much of it and cleaned it, bathed it and made sure it was all ok. I got up at 4 am and looked at my leg, it was warm, and swollen and I was like 'That's getting infected'."

The gold medal winner decided to go to the hospital and was prescribed some antibiotics. After his visit to the hospital, he went to bed but noticed his limb was still swollen in the morning and he couldn't put his prosthetic leg back on.

Zara Woodcock