Strictly star dealt huge blow hours before live show after battling illness
STRICTLY Come Dancing star Jody Cundy has been ordered to stick to new training rules after landing in hospital with an infection.
It comes after the 44-year-old Paralympian and partner Jowita Przystal suffered a further blow by being named the bookies’ favourites to leave the competition this weekend.
The stars finished at the bottom of Week Three’s leaderboard – and Zara McDermott, who landed in Week Three’s dance-off, is the next in line to exit the competition according to the odds.
Cyclist Jody, who had a leg amputated when he was three, was taken to hospital earlier this month when he woke in the middle of the night to find his leg swollen and infected.
To prevent any more trips to A&E, he has been forced to cut back on training which could put him at a disadvantage.
He said: “Three hours is the longest (cycling) training session I ever do.
“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.”
He continued: “We make sure I take the leg off every couple of hours, clean it, make sure everything is alright.”
Jowita added on Strictly: It Takes Two: “We do more breaks.
“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.”
Jody dashed to hospital and was given antibiotics but was unable to put his prosthetic legs back on because his limb was so swollen.
He added to host Janette Manrara: “It is healing and getting better. The swelling has gone down a little bit more.”
Jody later added that he hoped he would be back on the dance floor this weekend.
In week two Jody and Jowita performed an elegant quickstep to I’m Sitting On Top Of The World by Bobby Darin for their first performance.
They scored 21 points from the judges, with Shirley Ballas stating he has the “best frame” of the contestants so far.
Last week, they received an overall score of 20 from the judges and placed bottom of the leader board.
Strictly Come Dancing returns tonight on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.