Dancing on Ice star Jayne Torvill has spoken out about the "dramatic" fall during rehearsals which left her needing surgery and unable to perform on the ITV show this weekend.
The champion skater, 65, is currently wearing her arm in a sling after rupturing a bicep tendon during practice with partner Christopher Dean ahead of the final on Sunday. The nasty injury sadly means that the famous pair will not be able to recreate their iconic Olympic routine on the ice, for the first time in the show's 15-year history.
Speaking to The Mirror, Jayne explained: "I had kind of tweaked my arm the day before it happened and just felt a bit sore, you get these odd pulls and strains and work through them. We were doing a lift that was part of our routine, and I said to Chris 'Maybe we won't do this today, this might pull on the tendon,' and he said OK, and then I said 'No, it'll be fine, let’s just do it' – and I felt it ping, it pinged like an elastic band and it was extremely painful."
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Chris, 64, added: "Jayne came out of the lift in an awkward fashion, and I couldn't help her, so we ended up crashing down into the edge of the ice rink, it was quite a dramatic exit. As you get older, falls hurt more, that’s for sure."
The injury meant that Jayne had to undergo surgery to reattach the tendon, which involved having a small piece of metal inserted into her arm. Although she won't be able to strap her skates on for a while, Jayne insisted that she will be back on the ice again in the future.
The pro admitted: "I don’t think I have ever had an injury that’s stopped me doing what we were meant to be doing before. We were three days from recording this routine, we had been working on it for weeks and weeks, we were more than ready to perform it.
"It’s like something being snatched away from you in the last second." Jayne and Chris revealed that they were due to skate to Lady Gaga's Oscar-nominated tune Hold My Hand, which appears in the new Top Gun film, and hope that they will instead be able to perform the routine on the next series.
After all, 2024 will mark 40 years since the pair won the Olympic gold with their famous Bolero routine. "40 years on is a milestone, we would be silly to miss that," Chris said. "It may be the last time!"
While Jayne must sit out this year's finals herself, her injury has not stopped her coaching the celebrities as they prepare for their show-stopping performances on the ice. Joey Essex, The Vivienne and Nile Wilson will go head to head on Sunday, March 12, for the trophy, and have been hard at work practicing all week.
Chris teased of the upcoming routines: "One is drama, one is emotional and one is tongue in cheek, a little bit funny. They are all looking completely different."
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