Broken rib for Maier

The 30-year-old sustained the injury when he collided with a gate in training before last month's season-opening World Cup giant slalom race at Austria's Soelden resort. Despite the injury, Maier finished 16th.

"I didn't want to make a big fuss because it would have sounded like an excuse," APA quoted Maier as saying in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

Maier is competing in his first full season in three years on the tour after battling back to fitness from almost losing his right leg in a motorcycling accident. He had already been suffering from an inflammation of a tendon under his knee-cap.

The injury will not stop "the Herminator" competing in future, just as it did not stop him in Soelden, APA said.

"It was always clear that I would start in Soelden because I have to use every chance now," Maier said.

The injury will continue to hurt through Saturday's World Cup event at Park City, Utah and probably the downhill race at Lake Louise, Canada the following week, but Maier remains upbeat.

"I now have to work on becoming more robust. I have to press on and grit my teeth," he said.