Dancing On Ice star Myleene Klass has said her knee injury sustained during training is “very painful but just not very sexy”.
The musician and presenter tore her meniscus, a piece of cartilage in the knee, while training for her debut on the ITV competition this weekend and has been wearing a support.
The 42-year-old, who is paired with professional skater Lukasz Rozycki, said she felt like “the tin man” from The Wizard of Oz and struggled to get out of bed in the mornings.
She said: “I feel almost embarrassed by my injury because it is not a very sexy injury. I feel like a nana.”
Speaking about fellow competitor Graham Bell, a former Olympic skier, she added: “Graham is an expert in these things and he is going to have a two-metre chat with me later.
“It is a meniscus injury that is very painful but just not very sexy when you say your knees have gone.
“It happened from learning to dance on ice – no easy feat. It really isn’t. Here is the thing, on land I think I am quite stable.
“I feel like I can do my turns, I can get my counts to the music and then as soon as you remove the land and replace it with a very slippery surface it just does all manner of things to your joints.
Spins, twists, tricks and falls – last night's show had it all!
Relive every skate right here 👉 https://t.co/aIgICGiMBZ pic.twitter.com/ibhy4o44Hn
— Dancing on Ice (@dancingonice) January 18, 2021
“I said I am like the tin man. Every morning I have to wake up and oil and manipulate and move things before I can even think about getting out of bed.
“I thought it was going to make me feel like I was 16 again but it is making me feel like I am 116.
“But there are two Olympians here who are like, ‘Do you know what? Suck it up. We feel like this every single day, love’.”
Klass is juggling caring for her three children, daughters Ava and Hero and son Apollo, with training and her radio shows.
She said the programme was a welcome distraction for both her and her family during lockdown.
“Family life at the moment is a lot and my children asking me about fronted adverbials and doing fractions,” she said.
“Literally I would rather go on the ice and do a headbanger than take on fractions.
“It couldn’t have come at a better time. I think the light relief it provides, my kids get excited, they want to see the costumes, they want to know what everyone else is dancing to.
“Hero’s face just lit up to see Graham and Colin (Jackson)’s faces on the home screen.
“Everybody just needs the pressure turned down a little bit and that is what Dancing On Ice does. I will take my one and half minutes on ice to make a total tit of myself, no problem.”
Dancing On Ice airs at 6pm on Sundays on ITV.