( CNN ) -- A freak injury while playing an impromptu game of football with his teammates could sideline Norwegian skiing great Aksel Lund Svindal for the entire World Cup season . The five-time world champion was training in Soelden in Austria ahead of the opening races at that ski resort next week when he tore his Achilles tendon . Svindal described on his official Facebook page what had happened . `` I was out for a little run with the rest of the team ... We ended the session playing around with a ball . Just holding it up in the air between us . `` Suddenly I felt something snap in my leg and I knew right away that something was wrong . Achilles . '' Svindal , a two-time overall World Cup champion , was rushed to hospital in Innsbruck , 100km away , and underwent surgery straight away . `` Extremely bad timing just as the season is about to start . But now that it 's happened there 's not much I can do , '' he wrote . `` Nobody can say 100 % sure how long the recovery will take , but I 'm ready for the weeks that are coming . '' Norway team doctor Jacob Strauss gave a gloomy verdict . `` He will probably not get back on his skis before three or four months . '' Svindal was due to defend his world downhill title at the championships in Beaver Creek in Colorado next February and the setback places that in some doubt . The 2010 Olympic super-G gold medalist is no stranger to injury and missed most of the 2007-8 season after a heavy crash at Beaver Creek on the testing Birds of Prey course . `` I 'll stay in Austria for a while before I go back to Norway and discuss further rehab with the crew at the Olympic Center in Oslo , '' he added .
Aksel Lund Svindal tears Achilles tendon in freak accident . Svindal sustained the injury playing football with teammates . Score: 6 Could be ruled out for up to fourth months .