Axed Strictly star will not return for 2024 final due to injury-Emily Bashforth-Entertainment – Metro

The cast of Strictly 2024 will return to the studio this weekend, but one star will be missing (Picture: BBC Studios/Ray Burmiston)

Strictly Come Dancing star Nick Knowles has revealed he won’t be at the 2024 final after undergoing major surgery.

The DIY SOS star, 62, and his professional partner Luba Mushtuk, 35, were eliminated in week 4 of the dance show, having already been forced to skip Movie Week due to Nick’s injuries.

After a dance-off against Shayne Ward, Nick and Luba were sent packing, after which Nick required a ‘bicep reattachment’ op, while he also awaits knee surgery.

In a new interview, Nick shared that, unfortunately, he won’t join his cast members on the dancefloor for one last hurrah this weekend.

Speaking on BBC Radio Wales, fellow Strictly contestant Wynne Evans, who was eliminated in Blackpool, recalled Nick being in ‘agony’.

‘Yeah, I was trying to play it down because I was determined to go out dancing rather than just, sort of, go out with the injury,’ Nick replied.

Nick Knowles and Luba Mushtuk were eliminated in week 4 (Picture: BBC/Guy Levy)

Nick will be watching the grand final from home as he recovers from an operation (Picture: Instagram)

He explained that his bicep operation four weeks ago went well and he is ‘recovering quite nicely’.

In six to 10 days, the presenter will have an operation on his knee.

‘But it means, mate, I’m not going to see you for the final,’ a despondent Nick told opera singer Wynne, 52.

‘Oh no! Can you not be there at all?’, Wynne asked.

‘My operation’s on the 12th and the final’s on the 14th,’ Nick added, to which Wynne joked that Strictly maybe isn’t a good idea after all for ‘older men’, considering he and Paul Merson, 56, also damaged their knees.

On how he managed to get through the Strictly experience while injured, Nick offered an insight into his rather unusual remedies.

‘My mate’s got a horse that’s got knackered knees.

The TV presenter injured his arm and his knee during training (Picture: Ray Burmiston/BBC/PA Wire)

‘So, she said, “I’ve got this electricity machine that, like, puts a high voltage through the knees to help the horse.’

Nick’s generous friend gave him the machine, which he strapped onto his knee and used alongside compression leggings, a ‘sleeper machine’, and ‘robot arm’ to aid his elbow.

‘My poor fiancée, it was like sleeping next to Darth Vader,’ he quipped.

Nick has been keeping his followers updated on his recovery since leaving Strictly, assuring fans that he should be ‘right as rain’ after several months of physiotherapy.

The presenter first became injured while changing a tyre on a roadside, meaning he had to pull out of training for a whole week as he received a pass to the next show.

Heaping praise on the other contestants, Nick added: ‘I want to be able to do the dance well enough tomorrow that I’m just judged on the dance and not any of the other things.

‘If you think about it, everybody has got things to deal with, Chris (McCausland) is doing amazing things every week, Punam (Krishan) is holding down a GP job while training, and everyone has their own mountains to climb.’

Nick now requires months of physiotherapy, but reckons he’ll then be ‘right as rain’ (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)

Chris McCausland is currently the favourite to win (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)

Speaking on the spin-off show after his exit, Nick then said: ‘I had a week off; you can see actually everybody had progressed a lot in that week, and I just didn’t have time to be able to catch up and do well enough to stay in the competition.’

This weekend, the eliminated Strictly stars will take to the floor one last time for the famous group number.

The annual spectacle takes viewers on a trip down memory lane. This series, we’ll revisit week 2 when Tom Dean was axed right up until last week’s semi-final, which saw Pete Wicks eliminated.

All the stars, minus Nick, will then be on hand to cheer on this year’s final couples competing to lift the Glitterball Trophy: Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell, Sarah Hadland and Vito Coppola, JB Gill and Lauren Oakley, and Tasha Ghouri and Aljaž Škorjanec.

Currently, comedian Chris is the runaway favourite to emerge victorious.

The final of Strictly Come Dancing airs on Saturday at 6pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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