Kubica has ankle operation in Italy

The Polish driver, who suffered a near-death experience in a rallying accident last February, has begun 2012 in a negative way after slipping on ice outside his home.

Ruled out of a Formula 1 return for this season - having already missed the 2011 campaign after the Skoda rally car he was driving was impaled by a metal roadside barrier - Kubica's poor run of luck continued early last week when he lost his footing on an icy path just outside his adopted home, in the Italian town of Pietrasanta. The broken bone in question is the Tibia, which connects the knee with the ankle.

Manager Morelli has explained that Kubica now requires several days of bed rest

On Friday an operation was carried out at the Hospital Carlo Poma in Mantua, with the surgery being described as 'perfectly successful'. Kubica is expected to be discharged within a few days.

"Now he just needs a bit of rest," Daniel Morelli, manager to Kubica, explained to the Italian press.