Strictly Come Dancing’s Jody Cundy and Jowita Przystal have fired back over rumours they are set to leave the show this weekend.
The couple showed off their training ahead of Saturday’s show and put suggestions that Jody appears to be finding dancing ‘too taxing’ to bed.
It comes after the paralympian was rushed to hospital last week due to an infection in his leg following rehearsing too intensively.
Read more: Strictly’s Jowita Przystal issued new rules by BBC after Jody Cundy taken to hospital
Jody and Jowita will be performing the salsa on Saturday night as Fleur East announced on Friday’s Strictly spin-off It Takes Two.
In a training update, Jody said: “Salsa is getting there, but my body wants to go one way and the steps make me go the other way.
“It’s the whole patting your head and rubbing your stomach thing.”
Get Strictly Come Dancing news straight to your phone
You can now get all the latest Strictly Come Dancing news and gossip straight to your phone by joining ‘Strictly Come Dancing fans’ on WhatsApp. Just click here to join and the team at Yorkshire Live will send you all the latest stories straight from the newsroom.
We hope you like it, but if you don’t you can leave at any time. We also treat members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. Read our privacy notice here.
His pro partner Jowita explained that Jody is worried about looking silly while performing the up-tempo dance and demanded that he bring out his saucy side for the routine.
She said: “Jody is still quite shy and he’s like ‘oh but I don’t want to look silly’, and I’m like ‘you don’t look silly at all’. We need that sauciness of the salsa.”
Grabbing his hips as she held him closely from behind, she added as she winked playfully into the camera: “Come on, Shakira!”
(Image: BBC)
It Takes Two host Fleur then asked the show’s Friday panel if Jody can make a success of the salsa.
DJ Tyler West said: “Absolutely. It is a really fun dance to do, you’ve just got to let loose a bit, go wild with it and I respect that he’s got that athlete mindset.
“I know what that’s like and when injury gets in you’ve got to block it out and then just give your all to the next week after that.”
Jody was tipped as the favourite to leave this weekend by betting company Betfred at odds of 5/6 ahead of Zara McDermott at 7/2 and Eddie Kadi at 5/1.
Kayley Cornelius, a spokesperson from Betfred said: “After an unexpected trip to hospital last week due to an infection, Jody Cundy has admitted to finding the competition ‘too taxing’ and has been forced to limit his training this week, meaning his place in the competition could be at risk.
“However, after going head-to-head with Nikita Kanda in the dance off last week, Zara McDermott merely secured her spot in this week’s competition and could also face elimination if she and her dance partner Graziano Di Prima don’t bring their A game to the dancefloor this weekend.”
(Image: BBC)
Jody ended up in hospital last week after picking up an infection in training and admitted that he was pushing through the pain to try to train for longer than normal.
Since his trip to A&E, the couple explained that they have been forced to change the way they train, including how hard they rehearse to help avoid any further health issues.
Jody said on It Takes Two earlier this week: “We make sure I take the leg off every couple of hours, clean it, make sure everything is alright.
Jowita added: “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 around 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.”
BBC Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday on BBC One at 6.30pm.
Read More: World News | Entertainment News | Celeb News
Yorkshire
