Motsi Mabuse has announced that she will be unable to make it to the studio for this weekend's edition of Strictly Come Dancing.
The 39-year-old - a resident of Germany - revealed that she had to make an "urgent" trip back to the country earlier this week and now that she is back in the UK, she will now have to undergo a fortnight of quarantining at home as per government guidelines.
The news comes a day after contestant Nicola Adams was forced to drop out of the competition due to her partner Katya Jones testing positive for coronavirus, while Strictly It Takes Two host Rylan Clark-Neal has also had to pull out of hosting duties for a fortnight after a close contact tested positive.
Writing on Instagram, Mabuse explained: "Hi Guys - Earlier this week I needed to travel to Germany for an urgent reason. I will of course be following the UK Government guidelines and self-isolating for 14 days.
"I'll be watching from home and by the power of technology, should be in your living rooms. Watch out though, I'll be doing my own hair and make-up!"
The Strictly judging panel is already down to three members due to Bruno Tonioli's work on Dancing With The Stars in the US and even though Mabuse intends to appear virtually, The Sun claims that her physical absence could pave the way for Anton Du Beke to make a long-mooted step up to the judging panel.
With Adams's exit leaving the show with around seven to eight minutes of airtime to fill in this Saturday's episode, the introduction of Du Beke as a fourth judge is a plausible way of killing two birds with one stone.
Strictly airs Saturday night at 7.10pm on BBC One.
Neil Wilkes
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