Strictly's Susanna: 'I'm amazed Kevin doesn't protect his sensitive parts!'
Susanna Reid thinks that her Strictly Come Dancing pro dance partner is nuts because he doesn't protect a particularly sensitive part of his body from injury.
The BBC Breakfast star, 42, said that she is suffering from a trapped nerve in her toe, caused by ballroom shoes or fishnet tights, and that her legs are covered in bruises. But she suggested that her dance partner, Kevin Clifton, had also been accidentally injured.
She told the Radio Times: "Our dance partners also have to be wary. I have moved my knees too quickly and too close to sensitive parts of Kevin's body that he would rather protect.
"It's only happened once, but I'm amazed he doesn't come in wearing protective gear."
Susanna added: "In the course of his career he has suffered shin splints and stress fractures, but his current issue isn't dance-related - he's on painkillers for a compacted wisdom tooth. It probably needs dental surgery, but he's putting it off in order to continue training."
The TV presenter said that she had lost more than half a stone in weight since joining the BBC One show.
"Parts of me that were fleshy seem to be disappearing - other parts remain fleshy, and it's a shame I don't have a choice which bits go and which stay," she added.
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Kevin is not the only professional to have been injured on the show - Artem Chigvintsev was left with a bloody nose after his celebrity dance partner Natalie Gumede accidentally elbowed him in the face during last month's rehearsals.
Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.