Maura Higgins returns to Dancing With The Stars rehearsals with a smile after neck injury left her writhing on the floor in pain

Maura Higgins put on a brave face as she returned to Dancing With The Stars after a neck injury left her writhing on the floor in pain. 

The Irish Love Island star, 35, was seen heading to rehearsals on Friday with a smile on her face as she prepared to carry on against the odds. 

Maura wore all black for the rehearsals, teaming a black long-sleeved shirt with leggings and Alo trainers as she made her way into the studios. 

It was a remarkable comeback for Maura, who suffered an agonising neck injury and has admitted the pain has been getting worse as the competition heats up.

The reality star has become a firm favourite on the current season of the US TV show, earning consistently high scores for her routines with pro partner Mark Ballas.

But in rehearsal footage shown during Tuesday night's episode, the Irish star was seen writhing on the floor in agony as medics treated her for a painful neck injury.

During training for her fifth performance, a Tango to Rihanna's Only Girl (In the World), Maura was spotted wincing in pain and grabbing her neck.

The pain eventually became too much and Maura yelled out before falling to the floor whilst holding the back of her neck.

Her professional partner Mark Ballas and a medic then rushed to Maura's side as she remained keeled over.

'I've been having this like twinge in the left side of my neck,' she explained to the cameras.

'I genuinely feel like it's getting worse,' she said, adding that she was concerned the injury would 'ruin' her live performance.

In the end though, Maura once again wowed the judges as she took to the floor for the fifth time, coming second on the leaderboard.

This week the pairings had to perform to musical numbers from past half-time performances to celebrate Super Bowl Night.

Maura and Mark's Tango earned them 33 out of 40 with judge Bruno Tonioli describing the routine as 'thrilling from start to finish' and Maura as 'supremely elegant'.

Fellow judge Carrie Ann Inaba called it 'a beautiful performance', but added that 'some of the movements could be more punctuated in this sense - it just felt like some of the movements got cut short'.

Derek Hough said it was 'gorgeous, elegant, beautiful', but mentioned Maura's neck as he told the star 'your neck, your head in the contra check (a checking and shaping movement), it went too far back and it broke the line of the spine'.

Maura then shared an update on her injury, admitting that she had had twinges for several weeks before thanking the show's physiotherapist, Dr Gina Minchella, for her help.

'My neck is – you know, it's been playing up for weeks and it just seems to be getting worse, but good on Gina; [she] took a look at me. Her and her magic hands,' Maura told co-host Julianne Hough.

'But yeah, I'm just trying to do my stretches and trying to take care of it, but yeah, it's just something that I'm gonna have to deal with.'

At the close of Super Bowl Night, Maura and Mark came in second place, just behind Jenna Dewan and her partner Val Chemerkovskiy who scored a new high score for the season thanks to their paso doble to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance.

They were tied at 36 points by Paralympian Ezra Frech and his pro dancer partner Daniella Karagach, who received straight nines for their salsa to Nelly's Hot in Herre.

But the episode marked a sad goodbye for fan-favorite Guillermo Rodriguez of Jimmy Kimmel Live fame and his partner Witney Carson, who once again were the lowest-scoring team of the night.