Cristiano Ronaldo sends Lindsey Vonn powerful message after new update on horror crash

Cristiano Ronaldo has sent a message to Lindsey Vonn after the American ski star revealed in an emotional message that she came close to having her leg amputated after the serious crash she suffered at the Winter Olympics. The 41yearold was airlifted to hospital after colliding with a gate just 13 seconds into the women's downhill event. After being confined to a hospital bed in Italy, where she had four major surgeries and later a fifth after returning to the United States, she has now shared that she could have lost her leg if it wasn't for Dr Tom Hackett.

Taking to Instagram on Monday, she posted a video detailing her injuries and explained how her leg was saved. She said: "I had a complex tibia fracture, I also fractured my fibula head and everything was in pieces, and the reason it was so complex was because I had compartment syndrome. Compartment syndrome is when you have so much trauma to one area of your body that there is too much blood and it gets stuck. It basically crushes everything in the compartment - muscles, nerves, tendons, it all kind of, dies. Dr Tom Hackett saved my leg, he saved my leg from being amputated.

"He did what is called a fasciotomy, where he cut open both sides of my leg, let it breathe, and he saved me. I always talk about everything happening for a reason. If I hadn't torn my ACL, which I would have done anyway in this crash, Tom [Hackett] wouldn't have been there, he wouldn't have been able to save my leg. I feel very lucky and grateful for him, for this six-hour surgery he put in to rebuild it, which went amazingly well. I was in the hospital a little longer than I hoped because I had very low haemoglobin from the blood loss from all the surgeries.

"I was really struggling, the pain was a little bit out of control and I had to have a blood transfusion. That helped me a lot and I turned the corner and now I am out. I am in a wheelchair right now, I am very much immobile, and I will be in a wheelchair for a while because I also broke my right ankle. I hope I can be on crutches in a little bit but we will see, and I will probably be on crutches for at least two months. But I'll get right to work on rehab and see what I can do and take it one step at a time, like I always do."

Among the thousands of comments was one from Ronaldo, who shared a powerful message. "Champions are defined by the moments they win, and the moments they refuse to give up," he wrote in the post. "Lindsey Vonn, the mountains you conquered were never bigger than the strength you carry. Keep fighting. Legends always rise."

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Vonn has undergone multiple surgeries in Italy before returning to the United States where she had a further procedure. But after two long weeks, she has returned home where she will continue her recovery.

"Now I will focus on rehab and progressing from a wheelchair to crutches in a few weeks," Vonn continued. "It will take around a year for all of the bones to heal and then I will decide if I want to take out all the metal or not, and then go back into surgery and finally fix my ACL.

"It will be a long road but I'll get there. At least I'm out of the hospital. Love you all."

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