Palace: Queen Elizabeth’s husband suffers minor injury to his ankle in carriage accident

Queen Elizabeth’s husband suffers ankle injury

LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II’s husband Prince Philip suffered a minor ankle injury in a carriage driving accident on their Windsor estate Friday, Buckingham Palace said.

The palace said Philip did not need hospital treatment after his carriage hit a tree stump Friday morning and that he was “out and about as normal” in the afternoon.

The 88-year-old is an avid sportsman and took up carriage driving after retiring from polo in 1971. He said he thought it would be “a nice weekend activity” and has stuck with it since.

“It is amazing that he’s still doing it, and good for him,” Ingrid Seward, the editor of Majesty magazine, told the BBC.

Seward said she had once gone on a carriage with the prince, and that the Duke of Edinburgh was “probably practicing.”

“If you lose control even for a split second, it’s like taking a car over a curb,” she said. “You can sustain quite a nasty injury like that.”

Philip — also known for his skill at golf, sailing, and cricket — has had a series of sports-related injuries over the years.

He broke his ankle in 1961 in a collision on the polo field and cut his arm while playing the game two years later. He pulled a ligament in his shoulder after a fall from his polo pony in 1964.

Although the ponies pulling Philip’s carriage were unharmed in Friday’s accident, a woman who cares for the animals had to go to the hospital to have an elbow injury checked out.

Earlier this month, Camilla, the wife of Philip’s son Prince Charles, broke her left leg while hiking in Scotland.