Strictly Come Dancing star Jody Cundy has opened up on how a tough week of training lead to a terrifying 4am hospital dash, which could have ruled him out of the live show this weekend.
The Paralympic cyclist and swimmer dances with reigning pro champion Jowita Przystal and has been taking training very seriously – but had a worrying week when he developed a nasty infection in one of his legs.
Jody and Jowita appeared on Strictly: It Takes Two on Thursday evening, where he told host Janette Manrara about his health battle with an infection in the leg where he wears a prosthetic limb.
The 44-year-old athlete admitted: "It's been a week of highs and lows. The first two days have absolutely flown by.
"At the end of day two we had done the full routine a number of times which I had not done for the previous two dances. I was really confident that I could perfect everything for Saturday. I got home on Tuesday night and took my leg off and was like 'Oh, that's quite sore'."
Jody had tried to clean it up and get some rest, but woke in the early hours to find that his leg had got much worse.
He said: "I didn't really think too much of it and cleaned it, bathed it and made sure it was all ok. I got up at 4 am and looked at my leg, it was warm, swollen and I was like 'That's getting infected'."
The star ended up going to hospital for treatment, where he was prescribed antibiotics, but while he is starting to feel better now, he struggled for days to be able to wear his prosthetic limb – putting his training schedule behind and throwing his performance on Saturday night into question.
Jody sounded hopeful as he said: "It is healing and getting better. The swelling has gone down a little bit more."
He and Jowita are hoping to make it out onto the dancefloor for their movie week American Smooth themed on the animated hit Up.
Jody has represented Great Britain at seven summer Paralympics and won over eight gold, silver and bronze medals in cycling and swimming.
He will need to draw on his experience of packing in training ahead of an event as he and Jowita try to catch up on their training ahead of this weekend's live show.
They received just 16 points for their Paso Doble last week and a frustrated Jody said of the dance: "I cannot get my left leg and my right leg to do what my brain is telling me, and that is really taxing."
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