Beirer out of coma.

Injured motocross rider Pit Beirer regained consciousness over the weekend, seven days on from the fateful crash which appears to have brought an end to his glittering career.

The German crashed heavily at the Bulgarian Grand Prix in Sevlievo, and had to be airlifted to hospital for emergency treatment. There, doctors discovered that Beirer's sixth thoracic vertebra was broken and that his spinal cord had been so badly damaged that it was unlikely that he would regain the use of his legs.

Beirer was kept in an artificial coma for the initial stage of his recovery but, with sufficient improvement in the condition of his damaged lung, the medics decided to switch off the respirator that had been helping him to breathe, in order to allow him to start breathing naturally. They also decided that there was no need to operate on the German's broken shoulder.

According to his KTM team, Beirer has not let the accident defeat him and he is already talking about how he is going to cope with, and overcome, the likely disability. Above all, he has admitted that he is happy to be alive.