The President, Mrs McAleese, spent Christmas Day in hospital in Austria recovering from surgery after she broke her ankle in a fall during her annual family skiing holiday.
Mrs McAleese is likely to have her left foot in plaster for six weeks and will be forced to cancel or postpone short-term engagements, her spokeswoman said yesterday.
President McAleese was in the resort of Bad Hofgastein outside Salzburg with her husband and three children when she fell while attempting to board a ski lift at around 11.30 a.m. on Christmas Eve.
She was brought by car to a local hospital, where she had an X-ray followed by 40-minute surgery under general anaesthetic.
Her lateral malleolus, commonly known as the ankle bone, broke clean away from her fibula, the smaller of two leg bones that connect the knee to the foot, the spokeswoman explained. She had to have two pins inserted in her ankle to reattach the two bones.
Mrs McAleese remained bed-bound yesterday and will have her foot plaster completed today after the swelling subsides.
"She's in grand form today and they are managing the pain very well for her," the spokeswoman said. "Obviously she's very worried about what this is going to mean about her movements and fulfilling her engagements in the next months."
Mrs McAleese is due to leave hospital today and will travel home as originally scheduled with Aer Lingus tomorrow.
She said Mrs McAleese will probably have her leg in plaster for six weeks. Engagements not taking place in her residence, Áras an Uachtaráin, will be cancelled or postponed.