Ingle still in critical condition

Robert Battersby, the consultant neurosurgeon who carried out the life-saving operation on Paul Ingle, said last night that a tracheotomy had now been carried out on the boxer to ease the pressure on his chest.

Surgeons deliberately induced a coma to stop Ingle moving after they removed a blood clot on his brain following his ill-fated IBF world title defence against South African Mbulelo Botile in Sheffield on Saturday night.

Doctors treating the 28-year-old featherweight now hope to start weaning him off coma-inducing drugs.

"Paul is seriously ill, but remains stable," Battersby said yesterday. "His condition has not significantly changed overnight or during the course of the day and he is still in intensive care at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield.

"Paul's breathing was still impaired this morning and we have carried out a tracheotomy to ease the pressure on his chest. This is often required after serious head injury."

A tracheotomy involves making a cut in the front of the windpipe so a tube can be inserted, giving a more direct route to the lungs and so easing breathing.

Ingle's fiancee Samantha Coulson said she and his family had been "shocked and devastated" by his injury and had been with him at the Royal Hallamshire since the "accident". In a statement issued on behalf of the family, she said: "Paul is still critical and we are playing a waiting game to some extent."

The family, who were said by nursing staff to be exhausted but "bearing up well", requested that their privacy was respected during the boxer's stay in hospital.

Earlier yesterday, Battersby said Ingle was the first boxer he had treated with a serious head injury in 15 years.

"I think the facts speak for themselves. It's a dangerous sport, the men are exceptionally brave. They know the risks, they know the rewards too and sometimes they have to pay the price - but thankfully the figures for serious injury are very low."

Health Secretary Alan Milburn has rejected calls to ban boxing, saying the sport should continue as safely as possible.

But Labour backbencher Paul Flynn has vowed to try to remove boxers' legal protection from assault or even murder charges.

Allowing boxers to be charged with assault or even murder would discourage blows to the head and could lead to a rule change, according to the Labour MP.

British Boxing Board of Control general secretary Simon Block said injury was an inherent part of the sport, despite safety improvements over the past 10 years.

"Boxing is a dangerous sport. There are short-term and long-term dangers and they will never be eliminated," he said.

The board is holding an inquiry into Saturday night's fight at the Sheffield Arena, which was ended when Ingle - nicknamed the "Yorkshire Hunter" - was floored for a second time in the 12th round.

He was given oxygen on the canvas before being taken to the Northern General Hospital and later transferred to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital where he was on the operating table within 45 minutes of his collapse.