On Monday night’s “Dancing With The Stars”, it my have seemed like Lil’ Kim was getting her groove on flawlessly. But, what we recently found out is that Lil’ Kim was dancing with an injury.

Lil’ Kim told In Touch magazine about dancing the encore dance on Monday night’s show. “It was fun but a little nerve wracking. I have a small injury, well it’s not small, but I popped my rib out earlier this week and ripped one of the muscles under my rib. I didn’t know.”

When Lil’ Kim paid a visit to the show’s masseuse she found that her soreness was not just the usual aches from hours of dance practice. “She said, ‘honey you have a rib out, and you tore one of your muscles. She had to push it back in and it hurt so bad. I was dancing through the pain.”

The advice she was given? To ice the injury and rest. Ha!

Kim’s response? “There is no time to relax. We have to learn the jive and it’s really energetic – what do I do?”

Kim’s partner Derek Hough has enough time to change up the dance routine for Monday night’s performance. “He’ll use a plan B when it comes to the choreography. And whether I am comfortable or not I have to do it. I’m excited for the dance, but the injury has me a little nervous.”

Well, I’m thinking everyone is on an equal playing field now, aren’t they? Oh wait…Melissa isn’t injured…yet. Knock on wood.