THE York schoolboy who suffered serious injuries in a freak overseas skiing accident has returned to his home city - and is said to be "doing fine."

Jack Robertson, 14, from Drakes Close, Huntington, suffered a fractured skull and cracked vertebrae while on holiday in Italy.

He is recovering on a ward at York District Hospital after flying in to Manchester on a normal charter flight yesterday afternoon with his parents, Sandra and Steven.

Today Mrs Robertson said he was very lucky to have come through the accident.

She said: "There doesn't appear to be any lasting damage, he's a very lucky young man. His head injury is healing fine.

"He's going to have to wear some sort of brace for his back, but there's no damage to his spinal column."

The Huntington School pupil 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.

Jack is expected to be in hospital for about a week.

Updated: 14:23 Thursday, January 10, 2002