Zara McDermott offers gruesome toe update from tough Strictly training

Zara McDermott is finding out just how tough Strictly Come Dancing training can be, sharing with fans that "half her toe has come off".

The former Love Island star is being put through her paces on the BBC contest by pro dancer partner Graziano Di Prima, and although it is only week two she has already discovered that training is no joke.

McDermott and Di Prima danced a Cha Cha in week one and are now upping the pace with a Quickstep - but preparations for Saturday's live show have left the reality TV star with some distinctly unglamorous-looking feet.

Sharing a story to Instagram, McDermott gave followers a close up view of the bottom of her foot captioned: "Half my toe has come off TBH."

Her painful-looking toe had blistered and McDermott explained: "I put this on my close friends but I think the world needs to see it.

"I just have to let you all know that half my toe has come off… that’s half my toe!"

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The pair will be dancing their Quickstep to George Ezra's Anyone For You (Tiger Lily) and in another story, McDermott showed her fans the level of hard work that had lead to her toe injury.

She asked Di Prima: "Can you give me a break?" as she filmed on her phone.

But Di Prima told her: "This is your break. Honestly, this is your break. After you've finished this we go again and again. So, count this, 30 seconds of story minus another 30 seconds and then we go again."

McDermott had some strong support in the week one audience as her boyfriend, Made In Chelsea star Sam Thompson, and his best mate, The Only Way Is Essex's Pete Wicks, were shown sitting in the studio wearing shirts printed with her face.

Thompson has said he is confident that they won't be hit by the Strictly curse, despite McDermott having cheated on him when she took part in 2019's The X Factor: Celebrity.

Speaking about it to The Mirror, he said: "She was 22… so f***ing young.

"You know when you look at them and you go, 'She ain’t going to do that again', I could see in her face.

"You can just tell when someone has a beautiful heart and a beautiful soul and just f***ed up."

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday at 6.20pm on BBC One.