We're a little worried about our man Ralph Macchio. He's too funny and charming and wonderful to go home early this season on Dancing With the Stars, so this knee injury is distressing in the extreme.
What did he tell E! News after last night's show about his prognosis? Plus, what injury did Chelsea Kane just suffer? Here's what we can tell you exclusively:
READ THE RECAP: Chelsea Gets 10s, Kirstie Gets "Oily" and Ralph Gets...an MRI
Macchio tells us, "What's the diagnosis and the prognosis? They say [to expect improvement] three to five days from when it happens...ish...if you stay off it. It's a ruptured cyst and inflammation in the tendon or whatever, and they said I should be back to normal hopefully Wednesday or Thursday."
The injury is expected to heal, but it's been slowing the star down mentally just the same. Macchio says, "Saturday was a bad day. I couldn't come to grips...I was in denial about it. And I knew I had two days, but yesterday we went in and walked some stuff through, and even though I was wincing throughout it, I just felt I could get in and talk about performance, character and all the things I could bring...so I think yesterday the decision was made [to dance]. Today we had to change one move at the end that I really wanted to do--the drag, which was just beautiful--but I think we made it work."
Still, this was a bad week to be a week contender. Macchio: "Everybody did well this week! What are you going to do? It was the one week everybody was great, and I can't push off my right foot."
As for Macchio's striking new look last night, he told us, "Let's put it this way, when [guyliner] was mentioned, I wasn't like 'Hmmm, let me think about it...' It was time; it's like why do you do this show? Guyliner and body tanning."
And even though she earned 10s from the judges, Chelsea Kane has suffered physically as well. She joked to E! News, "Probably the worst injury I've encountered was the faceplant I took just walking down the street yesterday. It was really good. Tripped over my own flip-flop, my knees are bleeding..." And yet she's still so darn cute!
As for Kirstie Alley's onstage tumble, the explanation is simple, says Maks: "I pushed her." What now? Kirstie explained, while demonstrating with pushes and high kicks, "He wanted me to be in a certain place. He wanted me to be over there by the walls. This is how I feel about the whole thing: I don't care. I don't care if I fall down, I don't care if I wipe out, I don't care. We did an amazing tango. We did the best tango, we got the best score we've ever gotten. It was an amazing dance; it gave me a lot of confidence. It gave me something to do with the rest of my life because I thought: I want to take tango."
Do you think Kirstie has a future as a tanguera? Who's your favorite at this stage of the game? Hit the comments!