NICK BLACKWELL has awoken from a coma following an illicit sparring session which left him with a bleed on the brain, according to reports.
In a Facebook post, friend Chantelle Spong claims that a few days ago they visited Nick in hospital and he was “watching telly and really trying to get words out to talk to people now that his breathing ventilator has been taken out completely.”
In November, Blackwell was taken to hospital and operated on after he took part in a sparring session in Bristol, just months after his career was ended due to injuries he sustained during a March defeat to Chris Eubank Jnr. He had a bleed on the brain and part of his skull was removed.
Back in March he was placed in a coma after his loss to Eubank but, thankfully, made a full recovery. Naturally, he was unable to box again but had recently obtained a trainer’s licence before he was hospitalised once again.
A few weeks ago Boxing Newsrevealed that light-heavyweight Hasan Karkardi and trainer Liam Wilkins were suspended for their involvement in the sparring session.
There has been no official update on Nick’s condition but Spong wrote: “He’s still got a very long way to go to recover to his full potential but we know he will do it, it’s just going to take time.
“At the moment it’s all amazing news, he’s a fighter at heart for sure.”
She also addressed the speculation over the sparring incident, with some claiming Nick should also be held to account for stepping back into the ring.
“We don’t know what was going through Nick’s mind at the time but we do know boxing was Nick’s life and full time job for 10 years, it was all he ever knew and it got ripped away from him.
“If Nick thought for one second that he didn’t feel 100% we know in our hearts he would of never stepped foot in that ring to spar. His family and friends are his world and we know he never wanted us to go through this again but he genuinely thought he was at full health.”
