A Spanish royal’s bullfighting boyfriend is ‘gravely ill’ after being gored in the thigh and groin – again.
Victoria Federica, the 19-year-old niece of the King of Spain, watched on from the sidelines as the bull’s horn punctured a vital vein in her partner.
As reported by Metro, the incident took place during a tournament to mark Hispanic Day in Madrid’s Las Ventas bullring, although Matador Gonzalo Caballero’s injury lowered the tone of the national celebrations.
As the 27-year-old was taken out of the bullring, he was holding his crotch in an effort to suppress the gushing blood.
He was taken straight to the infirmary – where he was operated on for more than two hours, before being taken to the medical centre for further treatment.
The absolutely moronic tradition of bullfighting can be traced back hundreds of years – it was the 18th century when everyday people started to practice the sport. While Spain has the longest ‘running of the bull’ season, events also take place in Portugal, France and parts of Latin America.
In the fight, Cabellaro had caught the bull with a long sword gash on the back of the neck. In retaliation, the matador was charged and striking in the leg, sending him barrelling through the air and on to the ground.
The animal wasn’t done yet – as Cabellaro lay on the floor, prone and in pain, the bull hit him again. This is when his femoral vein was cut – located in the thigh.
The audience had to watch on in horror as a trail of blood followed the injured matador being carried out of the ring, as his wound persisted to leak on the sand.
Unfortunately, this marks the second time Cabellaro has been critically gored. The matador had only just returned to the ring after a long stint in hospital recuperating from another bullfighting injury.
However, as he lay in San Francisco de Asís hospital, in Madrid, it wasn’t all doom and gloom – for the matador, at least.
The crowd back at the stadium requested that Caballero be ‘rewarded’ with a severed ear of the bull. Another matador performed the deed for him, and it was delivered to him while he was in the bullring infirmary.
As per Alexander Fiske-Harrison, author of Into The Arena: The World of the Spanish Bullfight, a total of 533 bullfighters have been killed in Spain since 1700.
Injuries on the other hand are far more common. As reported by The Telegraph, 31 matadors were gored in 2013 – with the injuries ranging from minor to life threatening.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.