Dancing On Ice final delayed by football

The Dancing On Ice final has been put on ice for a week by ITV to make way for a football match.

The winner of the celebrity skating competition was due to be revealed in a live show airing on Sunday, 20 March.

But ITV has now confirmed that the final will be delayed by a week to 27 March due to the FA Cup Quarter Final.

Read more: Paralympian Stef Reid labelled an 'inspiration' as she pulls off headbanger

The second match of the FA Cup Quarter Final — Liverpool v Nottingham Forest — will kick off at 6pm on ITV on Sunday 20 March.

This means Dancing On Ice will be taken off air for a week, with the final now being shown on ITV on the evening of Sunday 27 March.

In the meantime the semi-final will air live at 7.30pm this Sunday, 13 March, with two couples facing elimination in a double eviction.

Last week saw Paralympian Stef Reid become the seventh contestant to be voted off the show, after landing in the skate-off against BMX racer Kye Whyte.

Whyte has been in the skate-off four times but continues to impress the judges and remain in the competition.

He joins Pussycat Doll Kimberly Wyatt, former Strictly star Brendan Cole, The Vamps' Connor Ball and dancer Regan Gascoigne in the semi-final.

Ball has set a record on the show for the number of stitches he has required after injuring himself on the ice.

The Vamps bassist and singer previously needed stitches after cutting his chin in rehearsals, and needed more after his leg was sliced open by a blade when he fell during a jump on the live show.

Ball was back on the ice for the latest instalment (6 March) of the ITV programme and revealed he’d had a total of 19 stitches.

“I think it’s a Dancing On Ice record,” he said.

He said of last week's fall: “As soon as I got up I knew there was something pretty wrong with my leg."

Ball told hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield that after his injury he could barely take in the comments from judges Ashley Banjo, Oti Mabuse, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean because everything was “a blur”.

The musician is now on the mend but admitted it had been a "tough" few days and that he had been dealing with numbness and pain.

Read more: Dancing On Ice: Bez bows out of skating competition

Last year's Dancing On Ice suffered a record number of celebrity drop-outs, with five celebrities forced to leave the cast over injury and testing positive for COVID, and a number of the pro skaters also injured.

Watch: Connor Ball fall and cut his leg on Dancing On Ice