Sildaru: This injury is much more serious than my previous one

Kelly Sildaru.
Kelly Sildaru. Source: Ken Mürk/ERR

Estonian Freestyle skiing star Kelly Sildaru has said, that the injury she sustained to her right knee injury in January is proving much more difficult to recover from, than ones she has faced in the past.

Sildaru suffered an injury to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her right knee following a painful fall in January. Back in 2017, the Estonian picked up the same injury, but to her other knee and so had thought she knew what to expect in terms of the recovery.

Two months on however, and Sildaru admitted that her current injury is much more serious than the last one, according to a report by Eesti Päevaleht.

"The recovery is therefore slower. It has been difficult for me because I was counting on the same things when I was recovering (as before). But everything has been more complicated and things are more difficult," Sildaru said.

At the end of the week, Sildaru, who has so far been receiving treatment in Estonia, will fly to Austria to continue her rehabilitation and start training at Red Bull's Athlete Performance Center. Sildaru added, that at the moment it is still too soon to say when exactly she might return to competition. "However, I would like to be back around September or October," she said.

The Estonian underwent an operation on the injury on February 16, a day before her 21st birthday.

Sildaru missed the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, with a similar injury, before  eventually returning to competition after a year-long break.

The Estonian already has four Winter X Games slopestyle and two superpipe golds to her name and she also took bronze in the slopestyle event at the Beijing Olympics last year. In 2016, at the age of 13, Sildaru became the youngest athlete to win gold at a Winter X Games event, as well as the first Estonian to take home a medal.

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Editor: Michael Cole

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