Matador gored through the jaw and eye

A Spanish bullfighter is recovering from surgery after he was gored through the jaw and eye in front of horrified spectators.


Television images showed the moment when the bull’s left horn ripped into Juan Jose Padilla’s lower jaw to emerge beside his protruding eyeball.

Padilla was pinned to the ground by the 508kg animal and was only saved when the bull was distracted by bullring assistants in the city of Zaragoza.

The 39-year-old got up from the ring with blood gushing from his face saying: “I can’t see, I can’t see anything.”

The matador suffered eye, bone, muscle and skin damage and has undergone a five-hour operation at a nearby hospital.

The bull, named Marques, was the second beast he had fought during the day.

Doctors Simon Sanz and Nadal Cristobal said surgeons used titanium plates and mesh to reconstruct parts of Padilla’s facial bone structure and eye socket.

A hospital spokesman said surgeons had tried to reconstruct the bullfighter’s left ocular nerve. He did not say if it had been a success.

But Vicente Yesteras, one of Padilla’s bullring helpers, said the matador was lucky the bull’s horn had not gone into his brain.

Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news directly in your email inbox.