THE world of Spanish bullfighting has been rocked by another gruesome injury after a top matador was left in agony following a goring at Sevilla’s Feria de Abril celebrations.
Peruvian bullfighter Roca Rey, 29, was preparing to launch the killer blow to the fifth bull of the afternoon on Thursday when the animal suddenly drove its left horn deep into the upper portion of his right thigh.
He was then lifted into the air by the 526kg bull and twisted painfully before being dumped onto his back, much to the shock of the capacity crowd at La Maestranza bull ring in Sevilla.
Rey, widely regarded as one of the most popular and highest-paid matadors in the world, was then rushed to hospital by colleagues with a gaping wound in his leg clearly visible to TV cameras.
Medical officials later said Rey was in a ‘very serious condition’.
A medical report released to the press on Thursday evening said Rey had suffered a ‘wound caused by a bull’s horn […] which has a total length of 35 centimetres, with a downward section of 20 centimetres and an upward section of 15 centimetres, causing extensive tears to the vastus medialis and sartorius muscles, dissecting and lacerating the superficial femoral neurovascular bundle practically along its entire length, without causing vascular injury’.
It appears that Rey was extremely fortunate that the deep wound did not slash a key artery or vein.
READ MORE: Spain’s ‘greatest bullfighter’ Morante de la Puebla quits over mental health concerns
The savage goring comes just days after Spain’s most famous bullfighter spent the night in intensive care after a raging bull drove his sharp horn into the matador’s bottom.
Jose Antonio Morante Camacho, better known as Morante de la Puebla, was making his comeback from retirement when a bull hurled him against the sand and trampled on his back.
Medics said the 46-year-old suffered an ‘injury by a bull’s horn […] extending approximately 10cm, partially damaging the rear sphincter muscles, with a 1.5cm perforation in the posterior wall of the rectum’.
“I was in immense pain,” Morante admitted from his hospital bed in a video posted to social media.
“Without doubt it was the most painful goring ever.”
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