Ashley Judd shares images of scars and bruises as she recovers from shattered leg

Actor Ashley Judd has vowed to return to the Congolese rainforest where she nearly lost her leg, as she shared an update on her recovery.

The 53-year-old Divergent star posted a video of herself sobbing in agony as she slowly moved her right leg – covered in bruises and scars – as part of physiotherapy to enable her to bend her knee after fracturing it in four places.

Judd revealed: "I am getting back up. I remember when I began sleeping through the night. I remember when I began to have dreams again (both kinds).

Watch: Actor Ashley Judd Rescued by Congolese Locals After Shattering Her Leg

"With the kind of injury I (& many others) have, we speak of degrees. In the video, 109 degrees was an outrageous dream, & trying to reach it was agony. I did 60 of those heel slides a day. I sobbed through them...

"Yesterday, I effortlessly reached the benchmark of 130 degrees. I can nearly reach my knee as you see in one picture. My feet can rest almost parallel. The knee is coming along, the four fractures healing."

The actor and political activist revealed she still has no movement in her right foot three months on from the accident. She hopes to begin walking again by June, using a brace and a cane as the nerves continue to heal.

Read more: Ashley Judd says 'nights are a savage agony' as she recovers from broken leg

Judd's leg was shattered during a bad in the rainforest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she was doing conservation work with bonobo monkeys earlier this year.

She spent five hours lying on the forest floor, without any pain relief, before a doctor arrived on the scene to reset the bone. She was then carried to safety by six men using a makeshift stretcher made from a hammock tied to a tree branch.

It took 55 hours to get her from the remote spot where she was injured after tripping on a fallen tree to the hospital for surgery – including a six hour motorbike ride, a bush plane flight and an overnight stay on the floor of a hut.

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Judd has since been recovering in a South African hospital.

In her latest update on Instagram, the UN goodwill ambassador said: "Look out, Patagonia, because when that nerve heals, you’ll be seeing me... I believe. Just as that little endangered bonobo knows that she’ll be seeing me back in the Congolese rainforest soon."

Watch: Ashley Judd vows that she ‘will walk again’ after breaking leg in ‘catastrophic accident’ in Congo rainforest