Nick Knowles reveals ‘painful’ injury forcing him to miss Strictly’s movie week

DIY SOS star Nick Knowles said he has suffered a “quite painful” knee injury after falling during rehearsals on Friday, forcing him to pull out of the Strictly Come Dancing live show on Saturday night.

Knowles, 62, and his dance partner Luba Mushtuk were due to perform the Charleston to Rain On The Roof from Paddington 2 during the 20th anniversary series’ movie week.

As per the Strictly rules, the pair will “receive a bye” through to next week’s show in the hope he has recovered.

Appearing on the BBC’s spin-off show Strictly: It Takes Two in a pre-recorded video, Knowles said: “During our first dress rehearsal today, or run-through of the dance number on the stage, unfortunately I damaged my knee and it’s quite painful.

“So the physios have decided I need to go for a MRI.”

Mushtuk added: “Unfortunately we will not be dancing tomorrow but we really, really hope that the knee will be better for the next week and we’ll be back on the dancefloor.

“Fingers crossed, we really hope that we’ll be back and see you guys very soon.”

Knowles said that “even if we have to glitter up the crutches, I am determined to get back and try and dance for you next week”.

He later appeared in a video on X to confirm he had taken a “fall” during the rehearsals which caused the knee injury.

It comes after the TV star previously revealed he had damaged his arm and shoulder, but received medical clearance to perform on the show last weekend.

“So bad news again for me, I’m afraid,” Knowles said in the video.

“After the tough week I had last week, everything was going really, really well this week, in fact training is going really well and I started, I think, and according to Luba, to dance very well.

“But during rehearsals today, the first run-through of the dance, this Charleston, the Paddington Bear 2 Charleston that we were doing, I managed to sort of fall and hurt my knee.

“The medics were great, the physios were great, lots of ice on it … But after having a look at it, they decided that I need an MRI scan.”

Knowles said he was on his way to London for the scan, joking: “I’m starting to get frequent flyer points at this place, if I’m not careful.”

He added: “I’m hoping that the injury is not too bad, and that I can take some days off to let it rest and maybe do some strengthening exercises, and I’ll be able to dance again next week.

“So, stick with me, we’re not calling time on it yet. We have to wait and see what the medics say.”

On September 23, two days after the series’ first live show, Knowles said in a video that he had been injured while changing a tyre.

He later told It Takes Two, while wearing a sling, that he had suffered the “painful” injury on the way to a family party on September 22 to celebrate his birthday.

On Friday, a post to Strictly’s Instagram page confirmed Knowles had sustained another injury, this time during rehearsals, and would not be dancing this weekend.

“As per the rules of the competition, Nick and Luba (Mushtuk) will receive a bye through to next week when he is hopefully able to dance again.

“Everyone at Strictly Come Dancing wishes Nick a speedy recovery.”

Strictly professionals sent their love in the comments with Lauren Oakley writing: “Get better soon.”

Head judge Shirley Ballas said that what Knowles and Mushtuk had achieved with only 16 hours of rehearsal time was “absolutely amazing” after they performed an American smooth to Blur’s Parklife.

Saturday’s show will see performances inspired by movies including Wonka, Wayne’s World, Barbie and Rocketman.

Strictly: It Takes Two airs weekdays at 6.30pm on BBC Two & BBC iPlayer.

Published: 04/10/2024 by Radio NewsHub