Sawt Falasteen - Injured Italian skier Bassino out of home Winter Olympics

The 29-year-old, who has won world championship gold in the super-G and parallel giant slalom disciplines, fell on Wednesday during her preparations for the first World Cup event of the alpine skiing season in Solden.

She was due to take part in the giant slalom event on Saturday.

"Marta Bassino's surgery at the Madonnina Clinic in Milan has been completed," Italy's winter sports federation (FISI) said in a statement.

Bassino's left leg fracture, near the joint between the shin and the knee, "has been successfully reduced and repaired, with the reinsertion of the medial collateral ligament", FISI added.

"Bassino will begin the rehabilitation phase in the next few hours, which will see her back on skis no sooner than in four to six months."

The Milan-Cortina Games will take place between February 6 and 22, meaning she would only be able to start skiing again at the earliest as the Games are ending.

Bassino's injury is another blow for Italy's hopes in the women's alpine skiing events.

Federica Brignone, the reigning giant slalom world champion and last season's overall World Cup winner, told AFP on Saturday that she is unlikely to return to competition before January due to a double left leg break suffered in April.

That would give 35-year-old Brignone just a few weeks to prepare for the Winter Olympics, during which the women's alpine skiing events will be held at Cortina d'Ampezzo.

N.Shalabi--SF-PST