Doctors focusing on pain management as Egan Bernal remains in intensive care

Doctors treating Egan Bernal in hospital in Colombia are focused on managing his pain while he stays in intensive care.

Eight days after the Ineos Grenadiers rider collided with a bus during a training ride with some of his teammates in his home country, the 25-year-old remains in a serious but stable condition.

The reigning Giro d'Italia champion fractured his femur, kneecap, vertebrae and some of his ribs, as well as suffering a punctured lung and chest trauma in the incident.

In the latest update from Juan Guillermo Ortiz Martínez, the director general of the Clinica Universidad de La Sabana hospital where Bernal is being treated, the doctor reported that the cyclist was progressing well and they had confidence in his recovery.

He said: "We continue to be very focused on pain management and providing a safe and supervised mobilisation with the support of an interdisciplinary team.

"We have carried out diagnostic control images and are permanently monitoring his evolution to define the lines of treatment."

Over the weekend, the hospital reported that Bernal had shown no signs of infection and that he continues to receive nutritional support to feed him."

Bernal posted a social media update on Friday, revealing that he had a 95 percent chance of becoming a paraplegic and almost lost his life.

He wrote: "I'm still in the ICU waiting for more surgeries but trusting in God that everything will be fine."

Messages of support have came in around the world for Bernal, with Chris Froome using his YouTube channel to ask that people do not start speculating about the Colombian's potential return to cycling. "We should simply leave him alone," the four-time Tour de France winner said.

Froome himself had a serious accident in 2019 when he crashed into a wall just before a time trial at the Critérium du Dauphiné. He returned to the peloton less than a year later.