Strictly star Helen Skelton reveals painful-looking injury from training ahead of second live show

Helen Skelton has revealed she has suffered her first injury ahead of the second Strictly Come Dancing live show.

The Countryfile presenter, 39, took to Instagram to upload a picture of her swollen-looking feet complete with bloodied heels as she rehearses for the BBC dance competition.

“And the aim of the game is to be sexy… not with these trotters #nopainnogain,” she captioned the image, followed by three laughing emojis and the hashtag “no pain no gain”.

Despite her injury, the mum-of-three seemed in good spirits as she also shared a smiley selfie with dance partner Gorka Marquez from their training session.

She also uploaded a clip of Marquez pranking someone as they walk into the building.

“Feet on fire and head exploding but loving every second of this journey…” she wrote.

“Somehow Gorka finding time to prank everyone – thank god there’s room to laugh. It’s been a big old week of training so far and still a lot to do… here’s to the feet and hips doing what the boss says.”

Skelton’s foot snap comes after she admitted she almost bolted from the Strictly studio before her dancefloor debut last weekend.

Speaking on her BBC Radio 5 show on Tuesday, she explained: “I had a little cry. I’m normally cool, calm, and collected

“I got on the dance floor and they said, ‘When the audience come in...’ and I went, ‘Oh crikey, yeah, there’s people. I was like, ‘There’s a fire door, there, I can get out of it,’ and I did.

“And Gorka found me and said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Just having a minute.’ I literally ran. It was like when I did Celeb SAS, I tried to escape that.”

Their first dance saw them land in sixth place on the leaderboard, after scoring 26 points with an elegant American Smooth to You Send Me by Aretha Franklin.

This week, the couple will attempt to impress the judges with their Cha Cha to Rain On Me, by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande.