PSG goalkeeper Sergio Rico cleared for return to football 11 months on from life-threatening horse accident that left him in a coma for 26 days

The 30-year-old Spaniard was hit by a mule cart and runaway horse during a pilgrimage in his homeland on May 28, 2023. The former Sevilla star had returned to Andalusia in order to attend El Rocio, but was left sporting serious head and neck injuries.

Rico’s family said at the time of the incident: “Sergio Rico travelled last night from Strasbourg to Malaga and there to El Rocio, with the permission of the club after PSG won Ligue 1. After just over an hour and a half with his family and friends, he was on his way to the Pontifical Mass next to the chapel when he suffered an accident when a mule cart and a runaway horse hit him.”

Rico was in a coma for 26 days, while spending 36 in intensive care, and has undergone surgery to address the injuries and bran trauma that he suffered. He was discharged from intensive care in July 2023, and then from hospital a month later.

Rico, who last played a competitive match during a loan spell at Mallorca in May 2022, has completed a number of tests with PSG doctors. He has also been monitored in Seville and by the French Football Federation (FFF), with a green light being given for a return to training without the need for protective headgear.