A matador was seriously ill in hospital today after being gored three times a fortnight after another bullfighter was killed in the ring.
Pablo Belando tried to walk out of Madrid’s famous Las Ventas ring unaided after being hurt but ended up being carried by colleagues and rushed to medics.
Today it emerged the 26-year-old from Murcia in south-east Spain was in a “very serious condition” after being gored in his chest, leg and buttocks.
He had an hour-long emergency operation. Doctors said the most worrying injury was the one to his chest as the bull’s horn had penetrated his lung cavity and broken a rib.
The gore wound to his right leg was nearly eight inches long and the one to his buttocks, caused as the animal charged him while he lay on the ground after being upended, four inches long.
He was in intensive care at Madrid’s San Francisco de Asis Hospital after emergency care at a hospital next to the ring.
The near-tragedy happened as Belando faced a second bullock called, Carretera, which means Road, during yesterday’s show.
Victor Barrio, 29, died after being gored at Teruel, east of Madrid, just over a two weeks ago in front of his wife Raquel Sanz.
He was the first to be killed in a Spanish ring for more than 30 years when the 83-stone bull punctured his lung and severed his aorta.
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