Overall World Cup leader Ivica Kostelic could miss the rest of the Alpine ski season after injuring his knee in the men's super-combined race on Sunday.

The Croatian, who clinched the super-combined title with his third victory in the discipline, needed help to walk away from the course after hurting his right knee during the slalom portion of the event.

"During the second run he felt a shock in his right knee," Croatian ski federation director Vedran Pavlek told reporters at the Russian ski resort, which will host the Alpine events at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

"He was able to finish the race but when he took off his ski boots he felt pain in his right knee. He had strong pain when he tried to walk," Pavlek said.

"We decided to take him to a local hospital for an MRI."

Kostelic's father blamed the course at Rosa Khutor for his son's injury.

"It was a very aggressive course with lots of ice turns and big jumps, it's very easy to get injured on a course like this," Ante Kostelic told reporters.

The 32-year-old Kostelic, who won the overall World Cup title by a huge margin last year, has had half-a-dozen knee injuries in his career.

"Ivica told his father that (Sunday's injury) reminded him of the problem he had while winning a slalom race in Italy in December, 2003, when he felt sudden pain in the same knee," Pavlek added.

Sunday's victory increased his lead in the race for the overall title to 70 points over Swiss Beat Feuz, who won Saturday's downhill here and finished second in the combined.

Kostelic hurt the same knee in the giant slalom at last year's world championships in Germany but was able to finish the season, skiing carefully.

He had to undergo surgery last May, forcing him to delay training for this season. To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)


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