Squash player injured in mugging

Madeline Perry suffered a brain injury in the attack

A leading women's international squash player from County Down is recovering at home after being mugged and seriously injured in Italy.

Madeline Perry from Dromore is ranked 8th in the world. Earlier this year she claimed a hat-trick of Irish Open titles with a victory in Dublin.

She had just left a restaurant in Milan when she was attacked.

Ms Perry suffered a serious brain injury but said nobody seemed to have witnessed exactly what happened.

"I was outside a restaurant and I just remember talking to a group of people before getting a taxi and the next thing I woke up in hospital in Milan," she said.

"I suffered quite a bad brain injury, broke the temporal bone in my skull and had some bleeding and bruising to the brain.

"It's really strange no-one actually witnessed what happened, which is very frustrating."