Italian motorcyclist Luca Manca, critically injured in Thursday's sixth stage of the Dakar Rally and placed in an induced coma after a fall, is no longer critical, organisers said Tuesday.
"Luca Manca is still on a respirator but the critical phase has passed. The rider has been awoken to control his reactions to various stimuli - adjudged to be fairly satisfactory - then he was placed back in a coma to drain his sinuses. There is no cerebral oedema and his pneumopathy is under control," the organisers said in a statement.
"Doctors will re-awake him at the end of the week," the Amaury sport organisation (ASO) added, revealing that Manca's father and brother in law were with him and his wife was on her way.
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The 29-year-old Manca had been undergoing treatment at Cobre de Calma hospital after being airlifted from the course and was put on a respirator.
He had been ninth in the standings on his Dakar debut but then came the fall in the bone dry Atacama Desert in northern Chile as the racers made their way from Antofagasta to Iquique.
