Irish Olympic athlete Jamie Costin will today be flown home from Athens by air ambulance for emergency treatment after a major car crash.
Medical experts at the Olympic village believe Costin (27) will make a full recovery, and surgeons are waiting in Dublin's Mater Hospital to examine the race walker's injuries.
Mr Costin sustained a compressed fracture of the lower back after the car he was driving careered head-on into a lorry shortly before midday on Monday.
The president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, Mr Pat Hickey, said the Waterford athlete will be flown home by the Luxembourg Air Rescue ambulance on a Lear Jet to Dublin airport today.
The Waterford athlete was training in the quiet country town of Porto Helis, around 300 miles from Athens, and was due to compete in the 50km racewalk competition on August 27th.
It was decided the athlete would be brought home for treatment after medical staff in Athens consulted with surgeons' at the Mater Hospital.
"The medical people think he will make a full recovery," Mr Hickey said. "He is very fit and everything looks right. "There is no danger of permanent damage and they think he will be able to race again and we are now working towards that."
PA