Although an MRI revealed no severe damage from a nasty crash while training on the Hintertux Glacier, 2011 World Cup overall champion Ivica Kostelic has elected to rest until the season opener Oct. 28 at Soelden, Austria.

According to a press release from the Croatian Ski Team, Kostelic fell hard at Hintertux earlier this week. “During a slalom run at Hintertux, Ivica Kostelić caught a gate, fell quite hard on his side and hurt his right hip and his knee," the release said.

"Since the pain didn't go away, Ivica and his staff decided to return to Zagreb (Tuesday) evening for a medical check. A magnetic resonance imaging was made by Igor Borić, M.D., at the St. Catherine Hospital in Zabok on Wednesday morning. It was diagnosed that Ivica Kostelic luckily did not suffer any major injury, neither at his hip nor at his knee. However he decided to take a short break to recover from the strong bruises he suffered during his fall."

"The return on snow is scheduled for the end of this week in Soelden, eventually on Saturday which is, according to the Internationl Ski Federation's rules, the last possible day for free training on the Rettenbacher slope where the first World Cup race of the coming season will be held a week later," also commented Nenad Eror, one of the Press Officers of the Croatian Federation.

"Between that test and the opening race at Soelden, Ivica will stay at his permanent base at Hintertux and hopes to be able to train normally again on the glacier," added Mr. Eror.

The 32 year old Kostelic was sidelined last season when he strained his knee on the Olympic downhill course at Krasnaya Polyana, near Sochi, Russia. He was leading the World Cup overall standings at the time of the setback when arthroscopic surgery was required. He was unable to regain the lead in the final weeks of the tour and lost the slalom title to Andre Myhrer and finished fourth overall behind Marcel Hirscher.

Gepa photo of Ivica Kostelic from Hintertux