Tears flowed on the Strictly dancefloor as Tony Adams bowed out of the competition at the weekend. In dramatic scenes it was announced that the Arsenal footballing legend had made the decision to withdraw from the BBC dance contest following an injury.
In Saturday night's live show Tony brandished a guitar as he and pro dance partner Katya Jones jived to Land Of 1,000 Dances by Wilson Pickett. The pair danced in a bid to make it to the iconic Blackpool Tower Ballroom next weekend.
In Sunday's show the dreaded 'red light of doom' landed on Tony and Katya, and they faced a dance-off with Kiss FM DJ Tyler West and his pro dance partner Dianne Buswell. Later there were shockwaves on the dancefloor as fans were told Tony was unable to take part in the dance-off and he became the seventh contestant to leave the competition.
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Host Tess Daly explained: “Due to an injury sustained on Saturday night, Tony is unable to take part in the dance off and has decided to withdraw from the competition. This means there will be no dance off tonight and Tyler and Dianne are through to Blackpool.”
On Monday night Tony and Katya appeared on the couch with Rylan Clark on the spin-off show It Takes Two. Tony, who had been troubled by a painful hamstring, opened up about the injury that caused him to withdraw from his Strictly journey.
He told Rylan: "It's been getting tough for the last couple of weeks. I had a little bit of a hammy last week and I went out there and danced.
"And then on Thursday I did a little bit of pointing my toe down, retraction. It's not done in football. You don't point your toes and I went 'oh'."
Tony, 56, explained that he almost pulled out of Saturday's live show until he found out that his mother-in-law was coming to watch him perform. "So we didn't do anything Friday and they gave me the choice," he said about the Strictly bosses.
"They're very professional the BBC, the physio was first class. They said 'it's your decision Tone, you go for it.' And my wife said 'my mum's coming, you've got to dance' and I looked into her eyes and she went 'come on.'"
Tony, who has previously opened up about being 26 years without drink and drugs and having a mental breakdown six years ago, looked emotional as he told Rylan: "I came into the show with one message to get the awareness of mental health and addiction out there. To say, 26 years ago I should have been dead. I didn't want to be on the planet and now I'm dancing on this show."
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