Strictly’s AJ: I was on my knees with injury pain that cost me place in final

SHE was left in agony after an injury robbed her of the chance to compete in last year’s Strictly Come Dancing final.

Now TV presenter AJ Odudu has told how her heart suffered more than her foot when she was forced to pull out of the final of the BBC ballroom series.

The 34-year-old and her professional partner Kai Widdrington, 26, were unable to compete against EastEnders star Rose AylingEllis and Great British Bake Off winner John Whaite after she ripped a ligament during training the day before the final.

Miss Odudu, from Blackburn, who helped to present the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant, had scored a perfect 40 with a quickstep in the semi-final.

‘It’s not that I thought I would win – because I didn’t – but I was just gutted because I knew we would have put on a great show,’ she told the Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine. She described how a ligament in the arch of her foot was left ‘hanging by a thread’.

‘I literally fell to my knees,’ she said. ‘The pain level was through the roof.’ Miss Odudu gained a famous admirer with her Strictly exploits – Hollywood star Tom Hiddleston. She said he approached her at the Bafta awards and said, “I’m such a big fan”.’ She added: ‘Strictly does that. It takes you to the next level.’

Deaf star Miss Ayling-Ellis, 27, went on to win the glitering final.