Entertainment

Nick Knowles to undergo arm and knee surgery after injuries during Strictly

The TV star said he ‘genuinely fell in love with dancing’ so will continue dance training after his operations.

Nick Knowles to undergo arm and knee surgery after injuries during Strictly (Guy Levy/BBC)
Nick Knowles to undergo arm and knee surgery after injuries during Strictly (Guy Levy/BBC) (Guy Levy/BBC/PA)

Nick Knowles has confirmed he will undergo surgery on his arm and knee in the next few weeks after he became the third celebrity eliminated from Strictly Come Dancing.

The DIY SOS star injured his arm while changing a tyre after the first live show in September, before he sustained a knee injury during rehearsals and missed movie week, and was then cleared to perform over the weekend.

On Sunday night, Knowles and his professional dance partner Luba Mushtuk lost the dance off against former X Factor winner Shayne Ward and his dance partner Nancy Xu.

DIY SOS star Nick Knowles after he pulled out of the Strictly Come Dancing live show on Saturday due to an injury (BBC)
DIY SOS star Nick Knowles after he pulled out of the Strictly Come Dancing live show on Saturday due to an injury (BBC) (PA)

Appearing on BBC spin-off show It Takes Two to discuss his exit, Knowles said: “I had a week off, you can see actually everybody had progressed a lot in that week and I just didn’t have time to be able to catch up and do well enough to stay in the competition.

“I think it was the right result in the end and it means that I can now get the various bits of me that are falling off sorted out.

“I might have an operation on the arm this week and then another operation on the knee in three weeks’ time so I can get myself sorted.”

Knowles said he “genuinely fell in love with dancing” so after the operations he will “do some more training with Luba”.

He teased he may join the Strictly Come Dancing tour, but “more importantly, I’m getting married next year and Luba is going to help choregraph the first dance”.

Mushtuk promised she is going to teach Knowles and his fiancee the Argentine tango.

The professional dancer said she was “so happy” to be able to dance their Charleston to Rain On The Roof from the Paddington 2 soundtrack before their departure from the show.

On appearing in the dance-off, she said: “The fact that we had the chance to do it one more time actually didn’t disappoint me much because actually he loved that dance so much and me too.”