Strictly Come Dancing contestant Delta Goodrem has shared a health update after a rib injury forced her to miss Icons Week. The 41-year-old Australian singer and actress returned to the dance floor with a rumba to Celine Dion, scoring the first 10 of the season, but she and her professional partner Kai Widdrington have revealed the challenges she faced during recovery.
Rib injury derails Strictly momentum
Goodrem, who topped the leaderboard with a salsa, said the injury came as a shock. Speaking to Metro and other press, she explained: 'We had such an incredible time when we got to do the salsa, and we were just so thrilled. There was such a fantastic energy on the night. We were stoked, ending on the top of the leaderboard.'
She added: 'I had noticed that I'd had some pain, and it just started to really go downhill.' Joking that 'at the end of the night, the rib decided it had had enough,' she could not pinpoint the exact cause, suggesting it was likely 'a combination' of lifts and tricks. 'It was a shock to go from being so happy to experiencing that surprise challenge we had to deal with.'
After a hospital visit, she realised she could not dance that week. 'We had to take it day by day, and I knew when we went to the hospital, and we saw what we were working with, that it wasn't gonna happen last week,' she said. 'It just meant we had to work really hard with a team to gently step back onto the dance floor.'
Recovery and cautious return
Goodrem described the rib issue as a 'new injury [she's] never encountered before,' which has required 'learning' how to care for her body. She said: 'Having been performing my whole life, I understand I will have to find those ways of helping my body to get back up moving, and I am a fighter; I have a fighting spirit, so I will continue on this wonderful journey.'
Widdrington, who saw his 2021 partner AJ Odudu forced out of the final due to injury, said he is mindful of 'minimising the stress' on Goodrem. 'We're not gonna go out there and do some crazy lifts and backbends that are gonna put strain on her. We're taking it step by step.' He added: 'It's up to me to put together some good choreography that means we can still shine and still have a moment – because I would be doing Delta an injustice if it wasn't a moment every time we stepped on the dance floor – but while keeping in mind that we're nursing her back to 100%.'
Future dances and hopes
Widdrington denied that the couple had asked Strictly bosses to adjust their schedule to include slower dances. 'When you do the show, regardless of how far you go, you never do all of the dances anyway; it just so happened we were doing [a rumba] this week. Next week it's Halloween, which is gonna be a bit more fun, and then we go on from there.'
He teased that they might revisit a dance planned for Icons Week: 'Maybe we'll go back and revisit a dance we had planned for last week. Nothing has changed. It's just the way the chips have fallen.'
Goodrem said: 'My heart is here in Strictly, and I've come a long way from Australia to be here. I love being a part of the show, and I am loving learning to dance every single day. We are a great team, and we'll go as far as we can take this.'
Strictly Come Dancing airs Saturdays and Sundays on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
