Boxing: Injured Ingle walking with aid
Tuesday, 9 January 2001 21:00Boxer Paul Ingle has taken his first faltering steps since suffering life-threatening injuries during a world title fight, his surgeon said today. The 28-year-old from Scarborough, North Yorkshire, had emergency surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain after losing his IBF featherweight bout with South Africa's Mbulelo Botile at the Sheffield Arena on December 16.
Today, consultant neurosurgeon Robert Battersby, who carried out the two-and-a-half hour operation at Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: "Three weeks down the line he is making remarkable progress. He's sitting up in bed, looking around, talking - and is walking with help. He knows about the past but has difficulty with the present and future - to predict how he's going to be two years from now is very difficult."
The surgeon said it was hoped to move the fighter, nicknamed the Yorkshire Hunter, out of intensive care and on to a normal ward within the next 48 hours. But he said it could be 10 days before he was well enough to be transferred to a hospital nearer his North Yorkshire home, if a place in a suitable rehabilitation unit could be found.
"He's not really fit enough yet to be transferred. He's got one or two metabolic problems which are being investigated. His family are bearing up well, although they are perhaps frustrated that he's not making dramatic strides any more," Battersby added.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
