Advertisement

Disaster prone one-eyed matador Juan Jose Padilla is gored again

The Local Spain
The Local Spain - [email protected]
Disaster prone one-eyed matador Juan Jose Padilla is gored again
Padilla's scarred eye socket was revealed. All Photos: AFP

Juan Jose Padilla knows what it is like to be gored by a bull.

Advertisement

In 2001 he almost died when he suffered a terrible goring to his throat by one of the legendary Miura bulls during a bullfight for San Fermin in Pamplona.

In May 2011 during a bullfight in Zaragoza he was tossed into the air by a bull which then thrust one of its horns into his head, piercing his skull and smashing up his face.

The incident shattered his jaw, left him deaf in one ear and forced the removal of his left eye. It also earned him the sobriquet El Pirata  - The Pirate – because of the eye-patch he donned when he returned to the bullfighting circuit five months later.

But more injuries followed.

A year later, he escaped serious injury when during the San Isidro festival in Madrid he was thrown into the air by a bull.

Then last October, revisiting the same bullring where he lost his eye, he was again gored in the same eye-socket after kneeling in front of a charging bull but amazingly escaped with little more than a concussion.

Watch video of the latest goring of Juan Jose Padilla on Sunday March 13th. Warning: graphic footage:

Then on Sunday evening during a bullfight to celebrate Las Fallas in Valencia, the disaster-prone torero once again found himself hooked on the horns of a half-tonne beast.

This time his eye patch was ripped from his face and his false eye popped out. The 43-year-old was gored through the thigh and again in the chest. But somehow, Padilla got up from this and killed the bull. He cut off an ear and staggered out of the ring, taking his trophy with him to hospital where doctors described both injuries as serious.

He suffered a punctured lung but is said to be recovering well.

In an interview from his hospital bed he said that he hoped to be back in the ring bullfighting within months.

“It’s more than lucky, it’s a miracle: Once again the hand of God was on me,” he told Spanish agency Efe.

“This was a bad one,” he admitted. “But I’ll be back”.

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also