Melissa Rycroft Competes Despite Injuries on Last Night's DWTS

DWTS: ALL STARS contestant Melissa Rycroft took to the dance floor last night, despite suffering head and neck injuries during a rehearsal on Sunday. The 29-year-old put on a brave face when asked how she was feeling by an audience member, commenting, 'I'm here.'

At the beginning of the program, Rycroft revealed that she had sustained a herniated disc while rehearsing a group routine on Sunday. She was taken to the hospital shortly after the injury and was accompanied by her dance partner, Tony Dovolani and her husband. 

"We didn't know if we were going to be able to compete or not," eplained Rycroft, after performing on last night's live broadcast. "I couldn't move my neck as much as I should have in the tango," she says, "but I'm happy that we were given the opportunity to go out there."

She continued, "What I was told was that it was not an option to just sit out one night," she says. "So if I didn't get clearance, it meant it was severe enough not to let me come back."

From the looks of the energetic and stunt-heavy group routine, no modifications were made to accomodate Rycroft's injuries. "It was too late to change them. I told Tony, 'I'm gonna go out and do it. And if something happens, I'm gonna squeeze your hand and that's your sign that something's going wrong.'"

Dovolani explained, "I was the one who asked for the ambulance to come in, because you don't mess around with necks. In the end, this is just a dance competition, and all I wanted was for Melissa to be all right. The first thing that crossed my mind was that I wanted her to be okay, because she's a mom. I thought: Will she ever be able to pick up her baby again?"

Photo courtesy of ABC

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