DIY SOS presenter Nick Knowles appeared on Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two last night (September 23) wearing a sling following a bicep injury over the weekend, and revealed he will find out his Strictly fate "today".

The 62-year-old jived to We Built This City by Starship with professional dancer Luba Mushtuk on the first live episode of the dancing show’s 20th-anniversary series on Saturday (September 21).

But in a video posted on Instagram yesterday, he revealed that he had suffered a “painful” injury on the way to a family party on Sunday (September 22) to celebrate his birthday.

What has Strictly star Nick Knowles done to his arm?

“I went to get my 10-year-old son and bring him back to the party but we broke down on the motorway with a flat tyre, and it was raining and there were big lorries going past, so I tried to do it quickly and change the tyre quickly,” Knowles explained.

“As I took the tyre off, I basically damaged my bicep and damaged my arm.”

Co-host of the BBC spin-off show Janette Manrara said “at this stage we don’t really know if you’re going to be able to dance on Saturday”, to which Knowles said he is “hopeful”.

He added: “I’ll find out more tomorrow but I’m fully expecting to go into training, and I’m really hopeful that I’ll be dancing on Saturday.”

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Knowles is expected to perform an American smooth which can incorporate lifts, to Blur’s Parklife during the next show.

On approaching training with the injury, professional dancer Mushtuk shared: “We still have a perfect position on our right arm.

“We are going to do perfect footwork in the foxtrot. We might even do the lift on that arm… I will just work around it. I will make it work.”

She also joked that she will “sparkle” the sling.

Knowles added: “Luckily I’m very big, and Luba is very light, one-arm lifts.”


The 2024 Professional Dancers


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Judge Anton Du Beke described his dancing on Saturday night as “uplifting” and added he felt “elated” after watching the performance, which scored 18 points.

Knowles was then given a cake by professional dancer Carlos Gu as it was the presenter's birthday.

Strictly Come Dancing airs at 6.15pm on BBC One on Saturday, September 28.