Sharna Burgess’ dance moves may be looking flawless on this season of Dancing With the Stars, but behind-the-scenes, she’s been battling a severe ankle sprain.
If you watched Top 13 Night on Monday, you may have seen the veteran pro dancer wearing a wrap around her ankle while performing with her celebrity partner, Jesse Metcalfe.
“Oh that’s just the first time you all have seen it!” she told ET via Zoom. “I’ve been strapping my ankle since week one. I rolled my ankle really badly before our first dance and it is a severe sprain.”
“I’m OK, I’m fine, but I need to strap it because it’s weak,” she added. “That’s why I’ve been wearing flat shoes.”
Sharna and Jesse danced a Cha Cha set to “Smooth” by Santana feat. Rob Thomas on Monday, receiving a total score of 21/30, their highest yet, from judges Bruno Tonioli, Derek Hough and Carrie Ann Inaba. Bruno specifically called Jesse out for his lack of hip action, but as it turns out, the former Desperate Housewives star has also been struggling with an issue of his own — “an arthritic hip.”
“They were very critical. I just took it, it’s all good. No excuses, team ‘All In!'” he exclaimed. “But I was convinced I might be in the bottom two. I was surprised to get put through to next week.”
“And Sharna, she’s an absolute warrior. She didn’t want to make a storyline out of her ankle but she had a severely rolled ankle in week one,” he continued, making a not-so-subtle, friendly dig at his competitor, Kaitlyn Bristowe. “We didn’t want to steal anyone’s storyline.”
Jesse is of course referencing what happened during week two of the dance competition show, when host Tyra Banks announced that Kaitlyn suffered an injury right before going live. At the top of the show, they weren’t sure if she’d still be dancing, but her pro partner, Artem Chigvintsev, later came on to reveal all was good and she would be powering through it.
Since then, Kaitlyn has been giving plenty of updates on her ankle via Instagram Stories, and in interviews with 360APROKO. An MRI revealed nothing was broken luckily, but as of week four she was still suffering from tendonitis and shin splints.
“I was a little worried about it, just because of how bad it was last week,” she told 360APROKO at the time. “But this week does feel a little better. Still sore, but doing everything that I possibly can. And then to hear that it’s tendonitis, it’s not going to stop me from dancing, obviously was great news.”
When Dancing With the Stars returns next Monday at 8 p.m. 360APROKO/PT on ABC for ’80s Night, Sharna and Jesse will be dancing the Tango to “Everybody Wants to Rule The World” by Tears for Fears.
