BBC Strictly Come Dancing's Sarah Hadland forced to swap partners after Vito Coppola injury blow

Vito Coppola has revealed he's set to miss out on the start of the Strictly Come Dancing Live tour as he has been hit with an injury blow.

The professional dancer recently excitedly revealed that he was back in the company of dance partner Sarah Hadland this week. Fans of the BBC One dance contest last saw the pair together before Christmas as they made it through to the final of the 2024 series at the end of last year, having been paired together back at the start of the competition in September.

Like their co-stars, Sarah and Vito were recently seen going their separate ways for the festive season but they were recently brought back together for the Strictly Come Dancing Live tour 2025 alongside other familiar faces from the class of 2024.

But appearing on This Morning on Monday (January 13), Vito confirmed he will be missing the start of the tour and will be replaced by Nikita Kumzin until he's back to full strength. He told hosts Cat Deely and Ben Shephard: "At the moment I'm being replace by Nikita because I've got a little injury," before he wriggled and pointed towards his back. "It's a dancer thing. We're used to having this kind of pain through our body."

Ben tried to clarify what his injury is, to which Vito said: "It's a lower back pain at the moment. I can walk, I can sit and move but going and dancing full-on and lifting, it's better to have a little rest so I'll hopefully be able to dance on the tour from Sheffield. I'm going to do all the physio..."

The tour kicks off on Friday (January 17) in Birmingham at the city's Utilita Arena before heading to Sheffield, Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham and London, with the final show taking on February 9 at the O2.

But Vito is excited for Sarah to experience what the arena tour has to offer, despite him struggling to contain his own energetic self from wanting to get involved in rehearsals. "We're going to be back soon. In the mean time, you [Sarah] are going to have the best experience and the first show in Birmingham will be just amazing."

Asked if she's ready to go, Sarah replied: "No! I still can't beleive it. It's just not going to be real. When they're explaining how big the stage is, I still feel like I can't comprehend it. It's going to be crazy."