Back home in Scotland now, after a short trip to the Olympic Medical Institute in London where I had both of my knees scanned to check the damage from my crash in the last Europa cup race at Nauders in Austria. The conclusion was that on my left knee I have a grade 2 tear of the medial ligament, a strain of the retinaculum and bone bruising on the lateral side of the femur there was also evidence of a micro fracture in that area which is anyway treated the same way as the bone bruising. In my right knee there was a fear that I may have damaged the screws and ACL graft from my big operation in 2000, however it turns out they are all in tact the only problem is a tear of the retinaulum which attaches the quad muscles to the patella. The good news is I will not need to have any surgery but will be around 2 months out with alot of physio work to get myself back into shape.
I have ruled out racing again this year due to already playing catch up getting back from breaking my arm in September and going straight into this season without the proper preparation. I feel that I am quite a bit down on 100% fitness already so to get back to top shape in skiing and fitness will take a while which I have now, so I intend use this time up till next season to allow my body to fully recover and build up a solid base of fitness with plenty miles on my skis. My aim is to be back on skis for the end of the winter for some training.
Bye for now enjoy the rest of the winter
Noelie
