Paula Abdul breaks nose trying to avoid dog

updated 2:31 p.m. ET May 22, 2007

LOS ANGELES - Talk about bad timing. Paula Abdul broke her nose this weekend — just days before the season finale of “American Idol” — when she fell while trying to avoid stepping on her Chihuahua.

Abdul was recovering from the mishap and planned to appear on Tuesday and Wednesday night’s shows, her publicist, David Brokaw, said Monday. (Two “Idol” contestants remain — Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks.)

“She’s a little sore, but is doing fine,” Brokaw said.

Abdul, 44, told syndicated entertainment TV show “Extra” that she tore cartilage in her nose and fractured a toe.

“I took a nasty fall ... trying not to hurt my dog. I bruised myself on my arm ... my chest, my waist all the way down to my hip. All from my little chubby Tulip,” she said.

The dog wasn’t hurt, Brokaw said.

This wasn’t Abdul’s first injury while judging the competition on the hit Fox network show.

She wore a sling in 2004 after surgery on her thumb, which was infected by a flesh-eating fungus following an unsanitary manicure at a Los Angeles nail salon. (She testified in California a year later, urging tougher safety standards for salons.)

“Being a professional dancer, I’m no stranger to pain, but this time the pain was so excruciating that even my hair touching my thumb caused me to scream,” Abdul has said of the yearlong ordeal.

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