Michaela Strachan has revealed that a nasty injury left her on crutches just weeks before Dancing on Ice training began.
The Springwatch presenter is competing on the ITV skating competition with professional Mark Hanretty, taking to the ice during the show’s launch on Sunday.
Speaking ahead of Dancing on Ice’s return, Michaela, 58, admitted that she suffered her worst injuries before she stepped foot in the rink. “I’ve got some good bruises. I actually had an injury before I got on the ice,” she said. “I sprained my ankle quite badly two months before we started. I was on crutches.”
The TV presenter was out running with her partner, cameraman Nick Chevallier, when she injured her ankle. “I went over on my ankle and sprained it. I thought, ‘It’s alright,’ as I hobbled back down the mountain,” she said. “Meanwhile, my partner is going, ‘You’re doing Dancing on Ice! This is really not good. You’re injured before you even hit the ice.’”
Dancing on Ice marks Michaela’s return to intense reality competition after her 2014 stint on ITV’s Splash. While the South Africa-based presenter said she’s ready to take on the challenge, her partner wasn’t too keen for her to take part.
“He hasn’t been very encouraging,” she said. “He just said that I’m mad but he doesn’t know the show. He’s South African so he doesn’t know Dancing on Ice. When I showed him all the accidents on YouTube, he thought I was really mad.”
The couple’s son Oliver, 19, will be in the audience to watch Michaela skate, although Nick currently doesn’t have tickets. “We haven’t made a plan for Nick yet because he’s in South Africa,” said Michaela, who also has stepchildren Jade, Tom and Sam from Nick’s previous relationship.
“Later on maybe – it depends on how far I get. Certainly my mum is coming, my brother’s coming, my son’s coming, my stedaughter’s coming. A lot of people are. We have made a plan for them to be able to watch it and have a party back at home in South Africa.”
The former Countryfile star will be juggling her Dancing on Ice commitments with the new series of Winterwatch later this month, admitting that she’s preparing for long days of filming. “That’s going to be a hard week. That is week three and Mark is going to come down to Bournemouth to train,” she said.
“My confidence won’t be very good. It’s going to be really cold and if it stays minus 16 degrees, they won’t be able to dethaw me. It’s 12-hour days without the training so it will be 15 hour days with it. Then I’ll finish a live show at nine o’clock and drive down to the studio on Saturday for Sunday. But I like a challenge.”
Despite the difficult training schedule, Michaela admitted that she will be “gutted” to leave the competition early. “This show is really emotional,” she said. “It’s been intense and has taken over our lives but we’ve loved it. It’s been a lot of work and to go in the first week, you think, ‘Jeez.’”
Dancing on Ice returns on Sunday at 6:30pm on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STV Player.
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