U.S. Junior national ladies champion Courtney Hicks is out for the season. There were rumors of this all week and now Chicago Tribune reports on it.
Hicks chipped a bone in her right leg during the Junior Grand Prix event last weekend in Italy. She underwent surgery on Wednesday and will be out for four months.
According to her coach John Nicks:
"I saw the x-ray, and it showed a triangular piece of bone about one inch on all sides had come away (from the tibia) below the knee," Nicks said. "The doctor told me he had never really seen one like that before."
Nicks said the injury occurred on the jump, a triple flip, that opens her free skate. But the coach wondered if her two falls on jumps in the short program might have owed something to the incipient leg problem.
"She skated (the short) in a way that was not usual for her," Nicks said. "She is one of the most powerful jumpers in the sport. I had a sense that something wasn't quite right, but she didn't mention feeling any acute pain after the short program.""
So unfortunate for Hicks to be injured like this. Here's a speedy recovery.