DeLay to Dancing: I Know How to Quit You

Source: Former congressman expected to announce on tonight's DWTS that he's exiting the show because of painful injury

By Marc Malkin Oct 06, 2009 7:56 PMTags
Dancing with the Stars, Cheryl Burke, Tom DeLayABC/CRAIG SJODIN

Tom DeLay is saying good-bye to Dancing With the Stars.

I just got word that the former Republican congressman will announce on tonight's results show that his injuries have left him no choice but to drop out of the competition.

With stress fractures in both of his feet, the 62-year-old Texan performed the samba last night against the advice of his doctors and DWTS producers.

DeLay started feeling pain before the season even premiered...

Just days after he began training with Cheryl Burke, he was off to see a doctor. "They put me in Latin shoes with high heels, and my toes almost fell off the first week," DeLay told me at the time. "So I went to a podiatrist, and I got a little problem with my feet. A cortisone shot cured me up."

DeLay is not the first star to drop out because of injury. Jewel and Nancy O'Dell were replaced after they exited before last season's premiere. In October 2008, Olympic volleyball star Misty May-Treanor walked away mid-competition when she ruptured her Achilles tendon during practice.

A rep for the show declined to comment on DeLay's expected announcement.

(Originally published Oct. 6, 2009, at 12:21 p.m. PT.)

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Check out Tom and the rest of the most recent waltzing competitors in our Dancing With the Stars Season Nine photo gallery.