By Miranda Pell

Copyright manchestereveningnews

Strictly Come Dancing fans have hit out at judge Motsi Mabuse’s comments after Karen Carney revealed how her health condition might impact her performance. In week two of the hit BBC dance competition, former footballer Karen, 38, revealed she has suffered with a spinal health issue since she was a child which is likely to affect her performances on the show. Karen, who performed with dance partner Carlos Gu, revealed that she suffers from Scheuermann’s disease, which causes the spine vertebrae to grow into a curve. During Saturday night’s live show on BBC One, Karen, who received a score of 20 from the judges, revealed: “I have this thing called Scheuermann’s. I’ve had it since I was a kid, it’s a curve in my spine. “It’s really, really hard for me to open my back up. There are certain elements that I just won’t be able to do as I’d love to, but Carlos is really supportive, really encouraging.” After her health admission, judge Motsi Mabuse thanked Karen for sharing, and went on to say: “It’s going to be something that we have to challenge to see how far we can really stretch and open up because it’s a ballroom dance and there’s a specific posture that we need. “That being said, last week you were top of the leader board and there was a bit of ease in the way you attacked, this week I could feel the nerves.” And some fans have taken to social media to protest the comments from the judge. @lindakimou asked: “Did Motsi just suggest that Karen has to ‘work’ on her spine curvature?” While Strictly viewer @RachelCDailey wrote on X, formerly Twitter : “Quite disgusted that Karen opened up about having a condition that causes a curved spine and Motsi’s reaction was to say they should “challenge” it instead of accommodating it #Strictly #SCD” @karenberryphoto agreed and added: “I thought the same. I have curvature of the spine. Love to know how Motsi thinks I could change it!” However, @EwanGubb believed Motsi’s comment was being misinterpreted and said: “I understood it as her saying they would be pushing it to see what she can do within her limits… she also thanked her for talking about it which I took as them being glad they were informed of an extra challenge that a contestant has… During the show on Saturday night, some Strictly fans were brought to tears after former Geordie Shore star Vicky Pattison performed to a Sam Fender song. Elsewhere in the second live show of the 2025 series, one contestant was dubbed the winner by some fans at home after being left speechless by their performance. Contestants taking part on this year’s series of BBC Strictly Come Dancing includes West End and Love Island star Amber Davies who is paired up with professional dancer Nikita Kuzmin , former The Apprentice star Thomas Skinner is partnered with Amy Dowden , as well as Lewis Cope, Chris Robshaw, Ellie Goldstein, Balvinder Sopal and others. This year, a major change has been made in the way eliminations are decided. After a dance off, when the bottom couples perform again and face a judges vote, the deciding vote usually sat with head judge Shirley Ballas. But now, the deciding vote will rotate weekly among the four judges. This means that one week Craig might have the final say, the next Motsi, and so on. But as always, if the first three judges are unanimous, the fourth judge doesn’t need to vote