Professional dancer Aliona Vilani will star in this year's Strictly Come Dancing and replace Natalie Lowe, who was forced to withdraw from the competition because of a foot injury.
Aliona showed her excitement at making her comeback, after having previously been dropped from the professional list before the summer."
Can speak about it now OFFICIALLY: I'm doing Strictly Come Dancing 2013 and I'll be on your TVs full time doing my thing Vilani style!!!!" wrote Aliona on Twitter.
Aliona stepped in last minute to replace an injured Natalie The dancer kept fans updated with a stream of tweets that followed, posting, "Rehearsals have been going well...having fun dancing with Brendan as a pro partner!" and referring to Brendan Cole.
"Let's see which celebrity I'll be paired up with this SCD series," she tweeted soon after. At the time of being removed from this year's line-up, Aliona revealed back in June that she had been forced to leave, contradicting the official announcement that she had quit the show. "I feel I should make it clear that I haven't left, it was definitely not my decision and choice to leave Strictly, let's see what happens...," wrote Aliona.
Natalie was forced to leave the show after an injury from training Her dream of returning to Strictly has come true, however, after Natalie injured herself in training ahead of the show's launch this weekend.
A BBC spokesperson said Natalie would return to the competition "as soon as she is fit to". The blonde dancer may well perform on later episodes for the larger professional dances. "My heart goes out to Natalie, and I wish her a speedy recovery," Aliona told The Sun.
Strictly Come Dancing is set to air this Saturday at 6:50 pm.
