BLADE STUNNER
SETBACK FOR OLYMPIAN GRAHAM AS PARTNER’S LEG SLASHED IN FREAK TRAINING INJURY
OLYMPIC skier Graham Bell will not be competing in the Dancing On Ice launch show this weekend following a ‘freak accident’ that injured his skating partner. Pro skater Yebin Mok’s leg was lacerated from a stab wound caused by an ice blade during training. Talking about the accident on ITV’s This Morning yesterday, Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, who present both shows, said the injury, so severe that the tendons were exposed, was too horrific to show viewers.
An ITV spokesman said Yebin, 36, received ‘immediate medical attention’ and is now resting. Graham will appear on Sunday’s show, but in the group number.
Comedian Rufus Hound and his partner Robin Johnstone, who were due to dance next week, will compete in Graham’s place and the 55-year-old Olympian will skate as part of the second group of six celebrities on January 24, with new partner Karina Manta, 24.
Holly, 39, who admitted she couldn’t bear to look at pictures of the injury, told This Morning viewers: ‘This week Olympic skier Graham Bell and his partner Yebin had a freak accident which resulted in her having a laceration in her leg.’
Phillip, 58, called the accident ‘proof now that Dancing On Ice really is the most dangerous show’. He added: ‘We had a Zoom meeting yesterday with the team and they showed us a picture which we cannot show you on TV, Holly couldn’t even look at it.
‘It was a very nasty stab wound from an ice blade, you could see the tendons. It is a dangerous show... she’s going to be out of the show for quite a few weeks, I think.’
Earlier this week, another Dancing On Ice contestant, Becky Vardy, 38, admitted she had put her partner Andy Buchanan in hospital after her blade ‘sliced his face open’.