Tony Adams made an emotional appeal to viewers watching at home about mental health and addiction as he made a sad exit from Strictly Come Dancing on Sunday, withdrawing due to injury before the dance-off.
While he has been thoroughly entertaining week in, week out, alongside Strictly pro partner Katya Jones, former Arsenal defender Tony never really set the leaderboard alight, apart from in Halloween Week, when he and Katya earned a series high score for their Quickstep to the Devil Went Down to Georgia. The couple were languishing at the bottom of the standings again on Saturday night, despite fans at home lapping up their jive to Land of a Thousand Dances.
That meant Tony and Katya had it all to do going into the public vote and, unfortunately for them, unlike in weeks hone by, they didn't get enough support from viewers to escape the bottom two, landing in the bottom for the first time. They were the first in danger pair to learn their fate, after the first round of results also condemned Tyler West and Dianne Buswell a dance-off debut, after eight weeks of avoiding it.
READ MORE: Strictly result drama as Tony Adams withdraws before dance-off
But, before a single move could be made in the dance-off, Strictly host Tess Daly had a major announcement to make, telling viewers at home that Tony had withdrawn due to an injury and would play no further part in the competition. Tony may not have performed in the dance-off but he still got to do an exit speech and it, was during his chat with Tess that he touched on his own battle with addiction mental health and had a message for anyone else out there struggling.
He said: "My god, it's been emotional guys. I cried for the first month and, you know, I came in here with one message. If you've got an issue with mental health or an addiction issue, please don't suffer in silence, reach out for help; that was my whole...I said it at the start."
He continued: "And I've used this platform...little did I know that I was going to learn a lot about myself in the process. It really is...I thought all this journey rubbish was rubbish, you know what I mean? But oh my god, the rollercoaster of emotion!"
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