Strictly’s biggest stories, from Nick Knowles’ injury to Giovanni Pernice’s future

Strictly Come Dancing will see its first couple of 2024 sent home this weekend as contestants put in their second live performance ahead of the public vote.

Nerves are sure to be setting in for this year's cast, but the forthcoming dance off is far from the only big story this week.

It's been a busy seven days both inside and outside of the training rooms, with the first cast injury of the season, the first romance rumour, and one former star's Strictly return all in the news.

These are the biggest Strictly stories this week as we get ready for Saturday evening's second live show.

Nick Knowles is injured

It's been touch and go this week whether DID SOS presenter Nick Knowles would be able to perform in the second live show as he won the unenviable title of first celebrity to be injured this season.

Knowles was on the way to his own birthday party when he got a flat tire on the motorway, and badly injured his arm while trying to change it. He ended up missing his party, but things could have been even worse for the TV star as it looked like he and partner Luba Mushtuk may have to sit out Saturday's show.

Luckily for Knowles fans, he confirmed that doctors had cleared him to perform just 48 hours before Saturday's show, although it remains to be seen how much the disruption to training will affect his American Smooth.

Read more at BANG Showbiz: Nick Knowles given green light to continue on Strictly Come Dancing

Giovanni Pernice makes Strictly comeback... in Italy

Giovanni Pernice's exit from the Strictly pro cast had been hogging headlines for months before the 2024 series launch, but despite the BBC investigation into Amanda Abbington's claims about his behaviour being ongoing, he is making his return to the dancefloor.

Pernice has joined Italy's version of the show and its host Milly Carlucci said the BBC had given them the "complete green light" for their former pro dancer to be involved in his home country's series, suggesting it pointed towards the findings of the investigation.

Carlucci said at a launch event for Italian show Ballando con le Stelle that they had been in close contact with the BBC, adding: "It should tell you something that nine months later they still haven’t given an answer. If there had been proof, as it were, the perpetrator of the Agatha Christie-style crime would have come out by now. It hasn’t come out."

She continued: "We have been monitoring the matter with the BBC and they have given us a complete green light in having Giovanni with us and that should also tell us something because the BBC seems to me to be a very serious company that wouldn’t have said to one of its partners: ‘Go ahead, it’s no problem’."

Read more at The Telegraph: BBC ‘gives green-light’ for Giovanni Pernice to dance on Italy’s Strictly

Pete Wicks and Jowita Przystal romance rumours

It's as sure a feature of Strictly as the spray tans and sparkles that every year, at least one couple will be rumoured to have fallen in love.

Making an early bid for 2024's romance of the series are Pete Wicks and his dance partner Jowita Przystal, who were photographed this week out walking with their arms around each other and fuelled gossip after appearing close on Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two.

The pair also stopped in to Wicks' Staying Relevant podcast which he hosts with best friend Sam Thompson, where Wicks admitted: "I can't sit here and go 'she's my life' - we don't know each other that well. But what I do know is that she makes me feel good. And that is really important and hopefully I make her feel good and that's a really nice place to be, you know what I mean?"

Read more at Manchester Evening News: BBC Strictly Come Dancing fans spot 'curse' as Pete Wicks and Jowita Przystal seen with 'third wheel'

Week two routine reveal

Celebrities were eased into Strictly last week as no one goes home after the first live show - but with scores combined for the first two weeks in Sunday's elimination, they will have been taking training extra seriously.

The week two routine reveal features current leaders JB Gill and Amy Dowden swapping ballroom for Latin with a Cha Cha to Ne-Yo's Closer, which they will be hoping will cement their status as the ones to watch this year.

Meanwhile, Toyah Willcox and Neil Jones are hoping to fight their way back from the bottom of the scoreboard with a Jive, while Paul Merson and Katya Jones will try to boost their points total with a Salsa to Pitbull's Fireball.

Read more at Digital Spy: Strictly 2024 confirms week two songs and dances

Janette Manrara's tears over Aljaz Skorjanec return

They're one of the golden couples of the Strictly pro cast and fans were devastated to see them leave when Janette Manrara and Aljaz Skorjanec quit their roles in the show.

So when Skorjanec got the call-up once more after Graziano Di Prima was dropped from this year's cast, viewers gave him a warm welcome back - and now It Takes Two host Manrara has spoken about how much it meant to them, too.

Talking to Prima magazine, she said: "We cried when that phone call came. We made that decision as a family and it was a big, tough decision because, at the time, we thought he would never go back. So when these conversations started happening again, all those butterflies we had when we started 11 years ago started coming back."

Read more at Digital Spy: Strictly's Janette on impact of Aljaz's return on relationship

Strictly Come Dancing continues on BBC One at 6.15pm on Saturday.

This article originally appeared on Yahoo TV UK at https://uk.news.yahoo.com/strictly-news-nick-knowles-giovanni-pernice-120300547.html