A TALENTED tennis coach who lost part of his leg after a motorbike crash now plans to ski for his country.

Oxford Brookes University student Josef Metelka, 23, had his left leg amputated below the knee after a car and his motorbike collided in Twelve Acre Drive, Abingdon, in March.

He hopes to join the Slovakian national adaptive ski team for training next month, where he will use a special prosthetic leg adapted for the sport.

The Slovak national was a leading light in his university’s tennis team, and has coached the sport at The Dragon School in Oxford.

Doctors spent hours battling unsuccessfully to save his foot.

Mr Metelka is likely to receive substantial damages after the car driver’s insurer accepted responsibility.

His solicitor Hilton Obery said: “He came to this county with a burning ambition to become a high performance tennis coach. To lose his leg is even more of a cataclysmic blow to him than it might be to any other young man.”