Reigning Giro d'Italia champion Egan Bernal is set to under the knife once more to address spinal issues caused by a training crash.
The 25-year-old collided with a stationary bus at high speed during training in his native Colombia and was immediately admitted to hospital to undergo spinal surgery and receive treatment for multiple other injuries.
Bernal claimed that he nearly lost his life in the collision, which also led to a number of fractured ribs, a punctured lung, a kneecap fracture, a fractured vertebra and a broken femur.
A statement from the hospital - the Clinica Universidad de La Sabana - confirmed that Bernal would need a second round of spinal surgery, saying: "After advancing the recovery of the systems involved in his polytrauma (musculoskeletal, respiratory, hemodynamic nervous) new diagnostic imaging was carried out and it was determined, on an interdisciplinary basis, that he will be submitted to an operation at the level of the cervical spine.
"This intervention will favour his process of rehabilitation. We advance with the patient in all his processes of recovery, confident of a swift improvement."
Bernal's hopes of trying to add to his 2019 Tour de France win at this year's edition are therefore hanging in the balance, and the Colombian only signed a five-year extension with Ineos Grenadiers earlier in January.
