One of the stars of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing has revealed they left their pro partner with a bloody nose after an accident while rehearsing. Former Lioness Karen Carney admitted Carlos Gu had felt the full force of her elbow as they practiced their show stopping Jive to Blondie’s One Way Or Another which they performed on the first live show of this series.

Speaking on her Long Story Short podcast the football pundit admitted: “The rehearsals went horrendous, it was just the day before the first live show. There’s a bit where I did a spin, and as I’ve spun and I’ve elbowed him in the nose and it bled.” Confessing she felt guilty she said Carlos was “incredible” afterwards and tried to carry on but she knew there was no “coming back from that!” She explained she was “really upset” she had injured him adding, “obviously Carlos is quite precious isn’t he? He’s a little sweetheart, so I’m extra devastated,” she said.

The pair came back from that to give a mind-blowing performance which saw them top the leaderboard with 31 out of 40 points from the judges, Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse, Craig Revel-Horwood and Anton Du Beke.

Karen’s odds of winning slashed dramatically following the dance but it later transpired that, unlike many of the contestants, she didn’t start her training completely from scratch for the BBC Saturday night show.

The star revealed her dance background in an old interview with the FA – even crediting it with enhancing her football skills. “I enjoyed football when I was a kid and had loads of kickabouts but I didn’t join my first club until I was 11.

“Until then, it was all about dancing for me,” she said. “We did loads of different routines and genres of music; street dancing, hip-hop, disco, rock ‘n’ roll, slow dancing, team dances.”