It’s been a painful couple of months for Emanuel Gyenes after his Dakar Rally crash. Despite finishing the race, he has been struggling with diplopia and other vision problems due to the accident that persist a month later.

Tuesday marked exactly a month since the final day of the Dakar. Gyenes, the defending Malle Moto winner, finished fourth in the subcategory and 15th in the broader Rally2.

While it wasn’t a repeat, he was just glad at the moment to complete what was by far the toughest race he’s done in his career. He crashed in Stage 3 after dominating the first two days, causing his vision to go blurry and mess with his depth perception. He also noted that he lost about 20 minutes worth of memories, though CT scans on site cleared him of head injuries.

He was urged to withdraw since he had a hard time seeing, but opted to keep going despite having to deal with headaches and his eyesight failing to improve. He ended the race with three total stage wins including the Prologue.

Upon returning home, he underwent an MRI that didn’t reveal any brain injuries.

“Unfortunately, the diplopia still persists today,” he wrote on Tuesday. “And after several investigations, the doctors told me that I have two inflamed muscles in my left eye, which should recover after a period of 4–5 months after the accident. I now feel much better than during the Dakar, but still, this double vision is very disturbing and tiring.

“Keep your fingers crossed for me, that I recover naturally and don’t have to go to surgery.”

Featured image credit: Julien Delfosse / DPPI / ASO