Austrian ski racer Hans Grugger has been put into an artificial coma after an operation on serious head injuries sustained during a fall in training for the World Cup downhill.

“Hans Grugger, who is still in an artificial coma, passed the night without any complications in the intensive care unit of the neurosurgery department” at Innsbruck hospital, the Austrian ski team said in a statement yesterday.

The team gave no details on the seriousness or nature of Grugger’s injuries, but Alois Obwegeser, one of the neurosurgeons who operated on the skier, said the 29-year-old was not yet classified as out of danger.

“At the moment you can’t say, it’s a severe brain injury,” Obwegeser said.

“We need more examination. What the problem always is with neurosurgical surgeries is that you have to wait until the patient is awake again.

“He is not out of danger. The acute danger is not very big, but we don’t know what the damage has been.”

Alexandra Kofler, Obwegeser’s fellow neurosurgeon, added that Grugger would remain in a coma for the next three or four days.

“We’ll be able to make a proper prognosis only in three or four weeks’ time,” she told a press conference in Innsbruck.

Grugger, starting fifth in Thursday’s training, hit the renowned Mausefalle (mousetrap) jump, just seconds after the start, at top speed and flew high.

The 29-year-old, who has four World Cup victories to his name and finished 22nd in the Olympic downhill last year, landed badly and slid for 30 metres before coming to a halt, seemingly unconscious. He received immediate treatment on the course before being airlifted by helicopter to Innsbruck hospital.

The Streif course used for the men’s downhill is considered the most testing of the World Cup circuit: more than 3.3 kilometres long, with racers reaching motorway-coasting speeds of 130kph while being forced into negotiating 80-metre jumps.