Formula One driver Felipe Massa is out of imminent life-threatening danger but is being kept under sedation to protect his brain. Massa remains in intensive care in a Budapest hospital after suffering a skull fracture following a freak accident on Saturday during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
And although the 28-year-old, still in a medically-induced coma, has shown signs of improvement after undergoing emergency surgery, it has now emerged Massa may have sustained eye problems.
If that is the case, and the Brazilian is unable to see properly in the future, it will mean his days in motor racing are over.
"We can say that the immediate life-threatening condition has been averted but a complication could make it life-threatening again," Robert Veres, the doctor who performed surgery on Massa, told a news conference.
"Currently he is in a severe but not critical condition and he is stable," Veres added.
Veres also confirmed that Massa had suffered an eye injury.
"I'm sure yes, but we don't know the quality of the damage (to his eye)," he told reporters when asked whether Massa's left eye had been damaged.
Massa fractured his skull in an accident during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday when he was hit just above his left eye by a bouncing spring, weighing almost a kilo, that broke free from compatriot Rubens Barrichello's Brawn car.
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, who flew to Budapest on Monday to visit Massa, said his main concern for the time being was Massa's recovery and the team would consider his possible replacement later.
"For us, the first priority is to find out Felipe's recovery progress and situation," di Montezemolo told a joint news conference with Massa's doctors. "Felipe is a very important member of the Ferrari family not just the Ferrari team.
"First priority now is to find out the situation with Felipe and then we will see and we will think, without pressure. Only at that moment will we make a decision and if we have to take a decision we will make a good decision," di Montezemolo said.