‘Strictly Come Dancing’ favourite Mollie King may hit a set-back this weekend in her quest to become the BBC show’s champion this year, after it was revealed that her professional dance partner AJ Pritchard has contracted a nasty illness and may not make this Saturday’s performance.

According to a report in The Sun on Wednesday (October 25th), AJ is worried that he won’t recover from a virus that has left him “bedridden” in time for the weekend’s performances, meaning that Mollie may have to dance with a stand-in, named Patrick.

AJ is on the road to recovery already, but with his temperature refusing to stay stable he is concerned that he won’t have gotten sufficiently better in time. However, he is still occasionally visiting the rehearsal studios to advise.

Mollie KingMollie King's pro dancing partner AJ may miss this weekend's episode

“AJ has been struck down with a bug. He really needs to lie down for the majority of the day as is temperature is up and down. He’s popping in every now and then to training to advise on the choreography, but he doesn’t want to give Mollie his illness,” an inside source told the tabloid newspaper.

“A back-up dancer called Patrick has stepped in and is dancing with Mollie, but AJ is in a real race against time to make it to the show on Saturday.”

More: Frankie Bridge reveals Mollie King is “panicking” about ‘Strictly Come Dancing’

As a member of the extremely popular all-girl band The Saturdays, 30 year old Mollie has been one of the favourites to lift the ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ crown in 2017.

Furthermore, there might be another one of those famous ‘Strictly’ office romances on the horizon, with both she and AJ reportedly enjoying each other’s company – at least according to the pro dancer’s father.

“Anybody would like Mollie, she is a very beautiful lady, she has a great personality – what is there not to like? They are spending more time with each other than a married couple would do,” AJ’s dad said last week.

More: Judge Bruno Tonioli MISSES his first ever episode of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’