Dani Dyer has admitted she is "scared" to return to Strictly Come Dancing after a devastating injury forced her to pull out of last year’s series. The former Love Island star is heading back to the ballroom after fracturing her foot during rehearsals last year, and while she is thrilled to have another chance, she says the experience feels very different this time around.
A different kind of fear
Dani, 30, admitted: "I’m really excited, but I am scared, like different scared now." She added that her foot is now “absolutely fine”, but admitted the memory of what happened has left her feeling nervous about stepping back into her ballroom shoes.
Speaking on LiveLaughLuke, she shared: "Obviously last year I was just scared anyway because it was Strictly, and it’s one of the biggest shows on TV, right? And people love it. So now I’m a bit like, oh my God, I really hope my ballroom shoes are nice to me."
Shoes binned as a bad omen
Dani, who's married to West Ham's Jarrod Bowen, even revealed she has already got rid of the shoes she wore when she suffered her injury, joking that she didn't want them anywhere near her second Strictly stint in case they're bad luck. She laughed: "I was like, 'can I get rid of my last shoes? Because I don’t like them shoes'. They was like, 'get rid of them'. It’s an omen. I don’t like them anymore. Get rid of them!"
The star revealed the recovery from her injury was a lengthy process, admitting she didn't do any form of exercise for around ten weeks afterwards. And Dani said the frustrating part was that she initially believed her injury wasn't as serious as it turned out to be and tried her best to continue on the series.
Quickstep fears and family support
She shared: "The thing is, I felt fine at the time. I was like, I’m gonna be fine, and then it wasn’t fine. It was so swollen, but I was like, it’s fine, we can carry on, and they were like 'are you gonna be able to get that in your ballroom shoes?' And I was like, 'yeah probably not'."
Dani admitted she's nervous about tackling the Quickstep because that's how she injured herself, and asked producers not to give her that dance first, "I was like, please not give me the Quickstep on week one," she said. While Dani is nervous about returning she said she's excited to see her kids Santiago, 5, and twin daughters Summer and Star, 3, react to seeing her dance. She gushed: "They’re gonna love it, they’ll understand it a little bit more, you know?"
Strictly Come Dancing is set to return in September with contestants including Dani now in rehearsals.
