New Delhi: Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a minor pelvis fracture during her Christmas cross-country skiing trip in Switzerland, and will have to govern Germany mostly while lying down for the next three weeks, her spokesman said.
The injury was announced only on Monday, after doctors told Merkel on Friday that what she thought was just bruising was actually an "incomplete fracture."
However her spokesman Steffen Seibert said she is cancelling several appointments and foreign trips in the next three weeks, including a trip this week to Poland, to give her time to recuperate.
Seibert said the accident happened in late December during Merkel's winter holiday in Engadin near St Moritz in Switzerland.
Merkel initially thought the fall had merely left her bruised but, several hours later sought out a doctor who diagnosed a so-called infraction fracture -- a partial fracture -- on the left, rear part of her pelvis.
Seibert was unable to say if anyone else was involved in the accident. He said the German leader would work from home but had cancelled trips and most appointments for the rest of the month.
