A YORK teenager whose New Year snowboarding holiday ended in a near-fatal accident on the slopes is expected to return to school within weeks.

Huntington School pupil Jack Robertson, 14, suffered a fractured skull and fractured vertebra after a collision with a friend during a family holiday in the Italian Alps earlier this month.

But despite spending time in an intensive care unit at a Turin hospital and a week on a high dependency unit at York District Hospital, he is expected to make a full recovery within three months. Jack returned to his home in Drakes Close, Huntington, on Thursday.

His mother, Sandra, said Jack must wear a special back corset for about six weeks and do special exercises at home, but otherwise he was very well.

Mrs Robertson said: "He's had really good care at York District Hospital and he's well on the way to making a full recovery.

"We are lucky - he is lucky - we just want to get him back to full strength.

"Hopefully, within three months he'll make a full recovery and he will be back to doing everything he did before, maybe even snowboarding.

"It was just an unfortunate accident, we just want to get back to normal."

Jack was snowboarding in the ski resort of Sestriere, in the Italian Alps near the French border, when he and a friend, who was skiing, collided.

Updated: 10:37 Monday, January 21, 2002