Dancing on Ice's Vanessa Bauer issues health update after quitting ITV show

Dancing on Ice's Chris Taylor and Vanessa Bauer
-Credit:ITV


Vanessa Bauer has broken her silence on quitting Dancing on Ice, issuing an update to fans and telling them she is 'focusing on her health' after pulling out of Sunday's live show and the rest of the series with just hours to go.

One of the ITV programme's best known pro skaters, Vanessa has partnered the likes of Wes Nelson, Joey Essex and Jake Quickenden over the last few years; with her reaching the final with Wes and Joey and taking home the trophy with former X Factor and I'm A Celebrity star Jake in 2014.

This year, the pro was paired with Love Island favourite Chris Taylor and, after a rather below par start to their time on the rink, bounced back in style in Movie Week to end the night as one of the highest scoring couples, thanks to a great Barbie themed routine. However, Vanessa and Chris' partnership is now over, with her forced out of the show in dramatic circumstances on Sunday, right before their latest performance, due to suffering an injury backstage a week earlier.

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Vanessa's exit was made official in a statement from Dancing on Ice bosses, which read: "Unfortunately, Vanessa Bauer sustained an injury whilst backstage and following medical advice, will not be able to skate for the remainder of the series. We want to thank Vanessa for all her hard work on Dancing on Ice, and wish her speedy recovery!"

The German skater has now also spoken out on her departure, with her sharing a video on her Instagram grid, which she began: "I'm here today with rather upsetting news. I am unfortunately not going to be able to continue on Dancing on Ice with Chris. That's really upsetting for me. I have trained Chris since October last year and it is always such an amazing achievement for myself to see someone else progress so much in a skill they've never done before.

'So it's been really rewarding for me to watch this whole journey for Chris - the way he's got better week since October and also since the live shows started."

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Giving more detail on just what happened, Vanessa explained: "I unfortunately had a little accident backstage last week on Dancing on Ice just before the live show on Sunday. And I didn't realise how bad it was then, but we did an MRI and it turned out that I have a completely torn ligament, grade three sprain injury and a major grade two sprain injury.

'I shouldn't be skating on an injury like that and so I'm taking all of the advice from the medical professionals here, I am in very good hands"

Finally, giving assurances to fans she will be back, Vanessa added: "My pain threshold, I don't trust it, I have been skating this whole week with a lot of pain but I just didn't realise that it was such a significant injury so I didn't voice my pain.

"It just goes to show that you should listen to your body and try to tune into your body a lot. I don't want this injury that is already bad to get even worse and so the one sensible decision is to step away, do rehab, focus on my health - I guess mental health as well - because it's really bad that I have to leave. But I'm excited to get better and to get back to skating properly every single day"