Strictly's Karen Hauer suffers painful injury that will see her off the dance floor until next year

Strictly Come Dancing star Karen Hauer was noticeably absent from the BBC1 show on Saturday night.

And now it's been revealed that the professional dancer—who was partnered up with Greg Wise for this series—has suffered a nasty injury that will keep her off the dance floor until well into the New Year.

Karen, 39, should have taken part in last night's ensemble number and was expected to be part of the final next week but has been forced to step down thanks to an injury.

Karen Hauer has since married boyfriend Jordan Wyn-Jones.

Explaining her absence on Instagram, Karen said, “So currently I have two things wrong with my knee.

“So there’s a little bit of a tear on my meniscus and then there’s also a little cartilage flap behind my knee but they’re very minor so instead of an op I got a knee injection so that’s good news."

The dancer is thrilled to have avoided surgery for now, and faced her fear of needles instead. “I mean, I am terrified of injections and needles. I hate needles so I’m glad that it happened already," she confessed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhy9I-gL0V0

“I pretty much bit off Jordan’s jacket, but at least I’m not going into surgery which is good for now.”

Revealing what happens next, Karen explained, “I need to rest for a couple of days and then I start rehab on Monday.

“Strengthening, conditioning which is something that I’m really looking forward to. This is very new to me. I’m laying in bed and it’s almost 10am but it’ll be for my own good.”

It's the first time in Karen's ten-year stint on the show that she's been forced to stay at home and not be part of the action in the studio.

"It's the first time in 10 years that I've had to be out, that I haven't been in the studio but I'm really happy to be clapping from home," she admitted.