Norwegian skiing star Aksel Lund Svindal had all eyes on him once more after a World Cup downhill on Saturday, but this time not for the reason he wanted.
Having won all but one of the five previous downhills this season, the overall World Cup leader suffered a season-ending knee injury in a dramatic race on the Streif course.
Svindal and Austrian pair Georg Streitberger and Hannes Reichelt were all thrown off the course after catching a bump they could hardly see because of flat light on the Hausbergkante.
Svindal ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and damaged a meniscus in his right knee, and underwent surgery in a clinic in Innsbruck later Saturday.
He was expected to need up to nine months for recovery.
"I messed up my knee a little and about to go into surgery," Svindal wrote on his Facebook page.
"Kinda sucks in the middle of the winter, but thats life. Ups and downs and just gotta deal with whatever comes."
Svindal, the 2007 and 2009 overall champion, returned this season from a year-long World Cup break after tearing an Achilles tendon.
He won seven races and was leading four-time defending champion Marcel Hirscher of Austria by 107 points in the overall standings.
