Kris Boeckmans undergoes eight-hour facial surgery after Vuelta crash

Kris Boeckmans is out of the medically-enduced coma and back in Belgium, but faces weeks of recovery after surgery

Kris Boeckmans wins in the 2015 G.P.Samyn

(Image credit: Watson)

Belgian Kris Boeckmans is out of danger after a Vuelta a España crash that put him in a coma three weeks ago, but is undergoing eight-hour facial surgery today that will prevent him from speaking for two weeks.

Boeckmans, 28, fell with Tejay van Garderen and around 30 others in the crash-laden stage eight to Murcia. He suffered severe facial trauma and was put in a medically-induced coma. Doctors brought him out of the coma last week and transported him from Spain to Belgium, in Genk, to a hospital with the country's best facial surgeons.

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Gregor Brown