MADRID — A young matador in Spain began his bullfighting career with a harrowing loss over the weekend.

On April 2, Daniel Garcia Navarrete, 23, was making his professional matador debut in front of 10,000 spectators at Las Ventas arena in Madrid.

Less than ten seconds into the fight, the bull flipped Navarrete and proceeded to drive its horn through his neck, and jaw, twice in each area. Navarrete’s peers rushed in to rescue him from the bull, but not before it got to him first.

Doctors treating Navarrete after the fight say he sustained a 20 cm cut as well as another 15 cm one where the bull’s horn entered through the roof of his mouth, and part of his tongue.

Now recovering in hospital, Navarrete is lucky to be alive.