Strictly Come Dancing professional Vito Coppola will be missing the beginning of the Strictly tour as he takes a break from dancing due to a lower back injury

Last year, Strictly Come Dancing fans watched as Vito Coppola and Sarah Hadland just missed out on the Glitterball trophy to Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell.

Now, there’s a buzz of excitement as the pair are set to dazzle audiences once more on the Strictly tour. However, in a twist, Vito has revealed he won’t be hitting the stage for the initial shows.

During an appearance on This Morning with Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley, Vito shared that Nikita Kuzmin will step in for him temporarily due to an injury, reports the Mirror.

Ben Shephard brought up the topic, saying: “We hear there was a little injury? You’re not necessarily starting the tour, you will be on tour, but you’re not necessarily starting.”

Strictly Come Dancing’s Vito Coppola replaced on tour as he details painful injury
Vito confirmed the news, explaining to Ben and Cat that his injury meant Nikita would partner with Sarah at first. He said: “I’ve got a little injury. It’s a dancer thing, you know. We’re kind of used to this pain a little bit in the body!”

Ben probed further about whether it was a back issue after noticing Vito’s gestures, to which the dancer admitted: “It’s like a lower back pain at the moment.”

Vito elaborated on his condition: “Of course, I can walk, I can sit and move but going to dance full on? Lifting and sharp twists of the body, it’s better, at the moment, to have a little rest.”

Sarah will be dancing with Nikita instead of Vito while he recovers (Image: ITV)
Despite the setback, Vito is optimistic about rejoining Sarah on the dance floor when the tour reaches Sheffield, towards the end of January. He concluded: “Yeah, I’m going to do all the physio and all the assessments this week.”

Sarah joined the conversation, telling Ben and Cat about Vito’s struggle to stay still. He responded: “Looking at the rehearsals, I really want to jump in with the dancing!”

Vito isn’t the only one who will be absent from the tour. Champion Chris McCausland is also unable to participate due to a clash with his stand-up tour dates.

Chris won’t be on the Strictly Come Dancing tour after date clashes with his own stand-up tour (Image: ITV)Discussing his absence on This Morning, Chris said: “It’s fine to have two different feelings about the same thing.

“I would’ve loved to have done more dancing with Dianne, and it would’ve been a lot of fun, but also I’m very lucky to have people want to watch me do stand-up, and I’m enjoying getting back into that.”