Rugby star Ilona Maher laughs through the pain as she continues to recover from a broken nose suffered during her first home start with Bristol Bears.
The Olympic bronze medallist, 28, was forced to leave the game early on Saturday, January 18, after colliding with three players on the pitch at Ashton Gate, Basically Sports reported. Maher showed off the injury on Instagram the next day, giving a thumbs up and smiling as her nose was stuffed with a bloody cotton ball.
“Just a little knock,” she joked, later revealing that she actually broke her nose during the match.
Ilona Majer showed off the broken nose she suffered during the Bristol Bears game.
Ilona Maher/Instagram
After swelling and bruising appeared, Maher shared a video of herself joking about how people would react “on the street today to me [probably].” She wrote, “I’m just guessing this is how it’s going to go today.”
“Guys, stop fighting over me. There’s enough to go around,” she said in the video, shyly tucking her hair behind her ears. “What? I’m a model. thank you so much Oh, you’re in love already? It’ll pass. It’ll pass.”
All kidding aside, Maher is the model who appeared on the cover Sports Illustrated Swimsuitdigital edition last August.
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In an earlier video, titled, “when people keep asking me if I’m okay but I just broke my nose,” she used audio from her appearance on Dancing with the stars when Carrie Ann Inaba asked how she was feeling after a tough performance.
Holding an ice pack to her swollen nose, Maher lip-synced “it got better, Carrie Ann,” as she pointed to her cut and swollen nose. “No sir, I’m really not well,” she wrote in the caption.
A broken nose can take up to six weeks to heal, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Despite her injury, the Bristol Bears beat the Leicester Tigers, 43-29.
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Source: HIS Education