LONDON — Actress Natalie Gumede was expected to be back on the floor for this weekend’s Strictly Come Dancing after being given the all clear and learning she has not slipped a disc.
The former Coronation Street star has had steroid injections after suffering agonising pains in her back.
Writing about her health woes in a blog for Yahoo!, she recalled the moment her back went.
She said: “Part way through the quickstep I started to feel faint, and upon repeating the dance I started to notice my back seizing up to the point where I was unable to lift my leg.
“The next time I tried, an agonising pain shot from my bottom down my leg, and my lower back started throbbing.”
There had been fears she may have been forced to pull out of the BBC contest if initial fears of a slipped disc had been confirmed.
But after undergoing an MRI scan, Gumede has now been told she is suffering from a “compressed disc”, coupled with sciatica.
A show spokeswoman previously said that Gumede has had physio and steroid injections to ease the pain.
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Gumede has proved to be a dance floor talent topping the leader board again at the weekend after achieving a score of 36 from the awestruck judging panel for her Rumba to Rihanna’s Love The Way You Lie.
The star, who became the early favourite to win the contest, will perform a quickstep to Yeah by Usher on Saturday with professional partner Artem Chigvintsev.
Gumede has revealed that her grandfather was president of the short-lived Zimbabwe-Rhodesia.
Teacher Josiah Zion Gumede’s stay in office was short lived — just a matter of months between 1979 to 1980 — but he claimed the distinction of having been the only president of the self-proclaimed State which failed to win international recognition.
Gorgeous Natalie, who formerly starred in the ITV soap Coronation Street as husband-batterer Kirsty Soames, never met her grandfather who died in 1989.
But of him she said, “I have done some research and managed to acquire some medals and coins that show my grandfather as president.
“It was a great achievement.”
— Agencies
