Colombian cyclist Egan Bernal, seriously injured in an accident during a training ride near Bogota, was released from the clinic on Sunday where he was treated for two weeks and operated on several times.
A photo of the 2019 Tour de France winner was posted on Twitter by the clinic. We see Egan Bernal protected by a neck brace around his neck and surrounded by two members of medical staff whom he “thanked” for giving him this “second chance”.
We’re happy to report that @EganBernal has been discharged from hospital today
Egan will now return home to begin his long rehabilitation journey — and we’ll be supporting him every step of the way. pic.twitter.com/tHilgYnCzk
– INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) February 6, 2022
“For me, being alive is like a rebirth,” Bernal said in a video sent to the media after his release from the University Clinic of La Sabana, on the outskirts of Bogota. At one point, I was preparing for the Tour de France, I was giving my all in the time trial (training), and the second after, I was fighting for my life.
No date for a return on the bike
Aged 25, Egan Bernal had violently hit the back of a bus which had stopped suddenly. He was then in the middle of training with his Ineos-Grenadiers team.
Since his accident, he has undergone five major operations on his spine, right leg and right hand. He is now able to “continue his rehabilitation process”, indicates the clinic, which specifies that “he has no complications” and that “all his injuries are stable and in the process of healing”.
According to his relatives, Bernal fractured twenty bones, including eleven ribs, a femur, a kneecap and two vertebrae. He also lost a tooth and had both of his lungs punctured.
No estimate of his possible date of return on a bike, in training or in competition, has yet been mentioned by his relatives, his Ineos-Grenadiers team or his doctors.