Danny Dyer is heading back to Strictly Come Dancing for the 2026 series after pulling out of the 2025 contest with a fractured ankle. The return restores the pairing the show had set up last September, before injury ended that run before week one.
She said, “Hi everyone. I'm so excited to say that I'm going to be back in the ballroom this September.” Dyer added, “I just cannot wait to get my dancing shoes back on, and hopefully this time around I can actually make it to week one! I'm just over the moon and cannot wait to see everyone else that's on it. See you soon, Strictly!”
Nikita Kuzmin and September 27
Last September, Dyer was introduced in the Strictly Come Dancing launch show with Nikita Kuzmin, then withdrew days before the first live show on September 27 after fracturing her ankle during rehearsal. Amber Davies stepped in and finished runner-up to Karen Carney and Carlos Gu, which turned Dyer’s exit into a rare replacement run that still reshaped the result.
That sequence is the part readers should keep in view: Dyer was not drifting away from the programme, she was forced out of one series and now returns to the next. For a show that depends on partner chemistry and rehearsal time, a withdrawal that late in the build-up changes the competition without changing the appetite for the contestant.
Instagram Story and recovery
Dyer also used an Instagram Story to ask, “A message for my flexible girls.. how do I learn how to do the splits [crying laughing emojis]. My legs are as stiff as a board.” It is a small detail, but it fits the comeback: she is already talking like someone preparing for the physical work the ballroom asks for.
On Saving Grace, she said, “You filmed the launch show a couple weeks before, so launch show done, you get your partner. On day four of rehearsals, I was so sad. I just knew straight away. I heard a noise, and the physio was like 'did you hear a noise?' and I said, 'no I didn't hear a noise!'” She added, “It just swelled up so bad on the weekend. I wanted to carry on, I'll be absolutely fine. There's just no point risking it, and obviously for them if I keep dancing on it and then have a longer injury, recovery.”
Strictly Come Dancing for the
The is already revealing the 2026 line-up ahead of the programme’s return in September, so Dyer’s name arrives as part of the next series build rather than as nostalgia. The practical read is simple: she gets a second start, while viewers get one of the few return stories that carries a built-in complication — whether last year’s ankle setback has truly been put behind her.
Whether Dyer is paired with the same professional dancer again is not answered, but the comeback itself is the point. She left with an injury that stopped the first run cold; now she is back with a new series and the kind of unfinished business that gives a dance show real narrative weight.
