Strictly Come Dancing star Jody Cundy has shared an update on his leg infection (Picture: BBC/Ray Burmiston)
Strictly Come Dancing star Jody Cundy has revealed he’s still in pain after being hospitalised with a leg infection, but has reassured fans that he’s powering on through.
The paralympian, 44, joined Jowita Pryzstal for a full week of training after missing out on two days in the run-up to last week’s live show.
At the time, he said it had been ‘a week of highs and lows’ while the BBC confirmed contingencies were in place had he not been able to perform during Movie Week.
However, Jody returned to the dancefloor, despite just days before not being able to put on his prosthetic leg.
He’s now given fans an update, telling Metro.co.uk that, despite some pain, he’s ‘on the way’.
Jody said: ‘The infection has cleared up nicely. Just kind of keeping an eye on it, trying to look after it a lot more than I had been doing and trying to stay on top of everything.
‘It still hurts a little bit but a few painkiller and we’re on the way.
The paralympian reassured fans he’s powering through this week (Picture: BBC/Guy Levy)
Jody and dance partner Jowita Pryzstal missed out on two days of training last week (Picture: BBC/Guy Levy)
‘It’s nothing more than having a blister on your foot.’
Jowita added that the pair are both ‘on top of the situation’ during training, having regular breaks to clean the infected area.
Jody previously revealed his hospital dash when speaking to Janette Manrara on It Takes Two, as the sporting star explained: ‘The first two days, absolutely flown by, the end of day 2, we’d done the routine a number of times from start to finish, which I had not done for the previous two dances.
‘Really confident that we could just perfect everything for Saturday, I got home on Tuesday night, took my leg off, and was like, “Ooh, that’s quite sore,” and didn’t really think too much of it. Cleaned it, bathed it, made sure it was all ok.
‘Then I got up around 4am, looked at my leg, and it was warm, swollen, and I was like, “That’s getting infected, I need to see somebody about it.”’
Jody revealed the inspirational messages he’s being sent from fans (Picture: PA)
After being prescribed antibiotics at the hospital, Jody was still unable to put his leg on the following morning, putting him out of action for two days, and leaving Saturday’s performance in jeopardy.
Despite the little rehearsal time, Jody and Jowita managed to score 20 points, telling host Claudia Winkleman: ‘It’s been emotional.
‘I had two really good days, I was like, “I’ve nailed this, now I’ll get the spit and polish on it and make it really good for today,” then I spent two days with my feet up.’
‘I’m extremely proud,’ Jowita added.
‘Literally, he had two days, he pulled it off, he said to me, “I wanna dance, I wanna perform that routine because it means so much,” and it means so much to me as well, so I am super proud.’
Jody elsewhere told Metro.co.uk the support and praise he’s received for representing the disabled community on screen and being an inspiration.
‘I’ve had quite a few messages from people who have just come into disability,’ he told us.
‘Friends that have lost legs are encouraging these people to watch the show because I’m on there, and people just genuinely excited by the fact that I’m on here and doing what I’m doing.
‘Even last week, the struggles I went through, like wearing a prosthetic and having sores and having to take it off and stuff, just highlights one of the little things that sometimes you have to get around when you’ve got a prosthetic.
‘It’s never a smooth ride and I think just being part of it and showing all of those bits and it all happening live is really useful.
‘I’ve had nice messages from people who are genuinely inspired by what we’re doing on the show, so that’s a really nice thing.’
Strictly Come Dancing continues tonight at 6.30pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
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‘We’re on the way!’