Whatever Laila did or didn't do to her ankle, I am not at all convinced that the 'bandage' had been applied by a health professional, or that she'd visited a hospital.

Last night she was wearing a single layer of Tubigrip, applied from half way up her foot to mid-calf - anyone who's ever worked in an A&E department knows that to provide the correct support the right size of Tubigrip must be applied in a double layer and at an even tension to stabilise the injury from the joint above to the joint below - viz - it should have begun at the final joint of her toes and ended just below her knee.

If there was no bony injury (confirmed by X-Ray) and if she'd insisted on dancing, a doctor might have suggested the old-fashioned method of applying a (temporary) broad elastoplast strapping to protect the injury and support her ankle - this method, in conjunction with painkillers, would have done the trick of minimising the pain enough to get her through 90 seconds of wriggling about in the rumba.

Yes, before I get eaten - she did look to be in pain - but - never forget that she is an actress and it all looked a bit too stage-managed to me!

Well if they were false tears Laila should be holding an Oscar aloft, not appearing in soaps! Did Anton give her a quick sniff of an onion to induce the tears, or did she have a phial of glycerine tears on her person?

The girl was distressed, anyone with half a heart could see that.

Yeah it was hidden down her Tubigrip as seemingly it had no other purpose!

Totally underused on British TV I expect Hollywood's finest will be on the phone today trying to secure her services! She had me totally convinced.

She was obviously distressed which begs the question of why the otherdancers/celebs in the pit looked bored unsympathetic and slightly cynical. I've no doubt she was upset but I'd love to know what those guys were actually saying to each other in private!

I don't know the answer to be honest, other than it seems to be a little more competitve now they are nearer the end. All of them suddenly realise they could be in the final.

...either that or they all can't stand her, who knows, I don't know her personally maybe she's a right pain, maybe she's lovely.

I think I'll stick to being compassionate rather than cynical.

Personally, I would love to Rumba with Anton. I adore him. I don't think it was faked. She looked like she was really hurting poor thing.

Well I'm sure I heard Anton break wind just before she broke down crying. Silent but deadly I suspect....

Me too.

Having read this thread I've gone and watched again on iplayer and you know what? Something is definitely wrong in the green room, the reactions and expressions of everyone else are BIZARRE. If a fellow competitor is hurt, or something genuinely goes wrong (ie. they completely muck up the routine) everyone is looking at them with compassion and there's usually a collective 'aahhhh' and sounds of support or even clapping them when they enter but there's nothing, she's met with stony silence and indifference. It's around 47.50 into the show.

Chris is making strange faces behind, almost eye rolls and eyebrow raises then after the results come in he's looking off camera at someone as if he's displeased, and then winks at them. Katya directly behind is giving them a very interesting look and when Claud says about them going to hospital, she turns to the person sitting next to her and does an opened mouth look of surprise/outrage (and then pulls Chris down to whisper something to him) as they're talking and not a single person claps or is 'in the moment' with them when they get fairly good scores.

I can't remember seeing such a muted, odd reception backstage. I didn't notice it so much first time around, but watching it now it's really obvious.

I have no idea if her injury is genuine, I want to believe it is but all I can say for certain is, something was very, very off with everyone elses reaction.

Hmmmmmm.

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I've been really alarmed reading some of the posts on here and especially over on the Beeb.

Unless we have evidence to the contrary, surely giving Laila the benefit of the doubt is the decent thing to do?

Let's have a <smooch> Buddy - I think we need one! x x x

And yet again you miss the point, I didnt joke about cancer , the joke in some posts and not just mine is basically about the various stories. Maybe you need to step back and realise that and not take it so personally .

No one is laughing at anyone with cancer or at cancer itself ( though cancer is such a horrid disease that laughing at it is one way through as I have seen with relatives ) and I certainly did not pick a fight with anyone .

What can I say Sid? I'm just going to leave them to it on here. <smoooch>!

Did the insiders know something?
Has there been a comparable situation before?
Tuffers came back to dance after keyhole surgery.
Ricky W danced through pain and injury.
How did the green room react then?

The comments about "fake" on here usually drive me round the twist because they're completely without foundation.

But in this case while I do believe she did genuinely sprain her ankle, I have to say when I was watching the peformance I felt it went wrong & she covered it up by attributing it to injury. I can see the injury was causing problems but I'm not 100% convinced that's why she stopped. She never did get comfortable with the Rhumba or Anton...

But it's impossible to know through the telly.

Not sure to be honest!

I seem to remember when Matt Di Angelo completely mucked up the routine he was met with clapping and lots of verbal support backstage and Kate Garraway was injured when she first started dancing, and she always got a lot of support. It's just the way things work isn't it really? It's completely abscent here, which I have to say on my third viewing of it gets odder and odder.

Yeh I agree.

I have literally just watched Anton and Lalia dance, and I have to say I do think her injury does seem genuine. Having injured my ankle at the beginning of July, and still being on crutches, you can see on her face whenever the backroom bits are shown that she is in pain and uncomfortable.

But saying that, I have also competed in two competitions as part of a marching band since I hurt myself, so... I don't know. Torn.

Also, relating to Aida's comment about the bandage... my physio gave me a tubigrip that only came upto halfway up my calf, although I had previously been advised to wear one up to my knee. So I don't know. Perhaps she had hurt her ankle, but it maybe wasn't as bad as she made out?

That's where I am.

I don't know about others but I'm not questioning her injury. Simply speculating whether she played it up a little & used it an excuse for Rhumba melt-down...

I don't see any alternative but to give her the benefit of the doubt. The severity of sprains can vary considerably and it's further complicated by the fact that different people have different thresholds for pain.

Much as I am loving the speculation on this thread, some of which appears to be lacking even a speck of irony, isn't the short point that pain is entirely subjective? What one man/ woman dismisses as irritation is agony to another. Add into the different levels of our individual reaction to actual physical stimuli psychosomatic elements and it is impossible to say that Laila was or was not incapacitated by a twist to her ankle.

In the same way that I adore hearing people relay UFO stories, I am entranced by the idea that the whole staircase fall was cooked up by this unholy pair just to get out of doing a rhumba together. They must have been so pissed off when Jade and Ian stole their thunder later in the afternoon by the tango knee-capping.

Did you notice that when getting their judges' comments, Laila was leaning away from Anton and more towards Tess?

Now for some of the snides on this thread, this probably is body language indicating that she can't stand Anton and never could.

Or could it possibly mean that she couldn't stand on her left leg and had all of her weight on her right?

As the poster said, Occam's Razor usually provides the right answer.

Unfortunately in Ireland we cannot access Iplayer, so cannot review the green room reception. Watched http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8-KJRPW4oA , but if anyone can upload to YouTube the green room bit that would be great.

As one who has been more than once painfully injured in the foot with swelling, it is a characteristic that the sufferer will be preoccupied with the foot, eyes focusing on it etc, uncontrollably and instantaneously wincing from shooting pain when the wrong spot touched the floor. Undoubtedly her foot was genuinely injured as she was careful not to put too much weight on it. But the pain did not look disabling, or she would know better than to try dancing. Undoubtedly injury distracted her from the routine.

But she came down the stairs easily, and went through her routine, more pacing than dancing, not driving into the floor in the approved rumba manner. When the two lost hand contact neither had any way of recovering the routine. Anton picked her up in an illegal move and spun her with verve and conviction as if it was part of the routine. I did not see Anton picking her up because she was in agony, more because the two of them were lost and stranded with no way out.

It was only after she was picked up that genuine tears appeared to well up. There was a lot to be sad about, first an injury then a meltdown in public? Did they go through the whole routine during dress rehearsal in front of the gang before her injury? Did the gang for that reason spot the impasse when hands disconnected, more clearly when it came than the audience could? Was that the reason for the green room silence?

I really have no idea why the greenroom was so odd, that's what's really puzzling me.

Laila hurt her foot, it was swollen and she was obviously in pain. I don't doubt that. I just think now that there's something wrong with everyone elses reaction hinting that either a.) *they* don't believe her b.) they don't believe the ankle caused her to muck up or c.) they just don't care because they don't' like her. No idea which one of those it could be, but I have to say I am very intrigued by the psychology of that backstage few minutes, it's got me wondering!