Mugger maims BB's Nush

Big Brother contestant Nush Nowak has had her leg badly broken by a mugger.

Doctors say the injuries are so severe it could be up to five months before the 23-year- old yoga fanatic is able to walk again.

Her hopes of becoming a yoga teacher and making a Christmas fitness video could also be shattered.

Miss Nowak was attacked at 4am yesterday as she and her boyfriend Scott Turner, a fellow contestant in the last series, headed home after a reunion with Big Brother friends at a pub in Islington, North London.

She screamed in pain as the mugger smashed her to the ground when she tried to stop him snatching her handbag.

The assault was so violent that her thigh and kneecap were broken as she fell. Miss Nowak - whose full name is Annuska - was taken to the

Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, where she had an emergency operation to insert wires and a metal pin into her leg to pin the broken bones.

Early today, a hospital spokesman described the attractive blonde's condition as 'comfortable'.

The incident happened in Kentish Town, close to where Miss Nowak lives. The assailant struck so swiftly that Mr Turner and another former Big Brother housemate, Jon Tickle, were powerless to help her.

As Miss Nowak writhed in agony, the mugger fled in a car with her bag, containing her purse and mobile phone.

Last night, her mother Elzbieta and stepfather David Shields were

keeping a vigil at her bedside after driving from their home in Malvern, Worcestershire.

Mr Shields, 39, said: 'It is horrifying. She struggled with the man and he pushed her to the ground so hard that she broke her leg and kneecap.

'Scott called an ambulance. She's been in theatre all day.'

Doctors say that it could be five months before Miss Nowak recovers fully. That means a lucrative deal she had just clinched to produce a fitness-video for Christmas will have to be scrapped. Mr Shields said: 'We don't know how soon it will be before she can walk properly. It's going to take her a long time to get better.'

Mr Turner, 28, who lives with Miss Nowak, was too upset to talk about the mugging last night.

The couple, who fell for each other in the Big Brother house, have only recently returned from a holiday in Cyprus. Sources said Mr Turner was devastated at being unable to prevent-the attack. A friend said: 'He is in shock. He keeps running the whole thing over in his mind, but there was nothing that any of them could do.

'It all happened in such a flash. It's a terrible time for Nush.'

Police were last night investigating whether the attacker - described as black and in his 20s - targeted Miss Nowak after recognising her from the Channel 4 show.