Saturday night, Mark Ballas announced that he had suffered a groin injury that would put him on the bench for a couple of weeks until it heals, which means that the “Dancing With The Stars” tour is bound to have to do without the pro for a while.

Ballas won the show’s mirror ball trophy at the end of the sixth season, along with partner Kristi Yamaguchi, a figure skater who was the 1992 Olympic Champion in women’s singles.

In 1991 and the year after, Yamaguchi also won two World Figure Skating Championships, while in the latter year, she ranked first in the United States Figure Skating Championships.

The night he suffered the injury, Mark Ballas apologized to the audience gathered at the Staples Center for not having been able to perform at his best, although his hip-hop routine with fellow professional dancers Lacey Schwimmer and Derek Hough was a real crowd-pleaser.

Recently, Ballas and Hough finalized the works on their first CD as Ballas Hough Band for Hollywood records, whereas they are both expected to return for the DWTS’ eighth season. The latter is scheduled to premiere on ABC on March 9.

The seventh season of the dancing competition show found its winner at the end of November, when it crowned 37-year-old model-actress Brooke Burke champion.

Burke had owned DWTS from its very beginning, while when it came to choosing the winner, she and partner Derek Hough outran fellow finalists former 'NSync member Lance Bass and partner Lacey Schwimmer and former NFL player Warren Sapp, alongside partner Kym Johnson.