Andrew Houlihan crashed on Sunday morning, Greece time, on the last day of the Hellas Rally Raid, which is held through the trails in the Greek mountains.

Mr Houlihan and his wife Katie, who own Houlihan’s Caravans & RV Centre in Albury, are now trying to arrange his transfer to another country for more surgery.

In a message from his hospital bed, Mr Houlihan said his crash occurred just after the start of the final special stage in the mountain ranges behind the city of Pyrgos.

“I have no recollection of even starting the stage or the crash,” he said.

“I apparently collided with another competitor at high speed and was unconscious for quite a while.

“I was transported to Pyrgos hospital in a critical condition and immediately had a hole cut in my chest and tube inserted.”

His injuries are a punctured lung, fractured sternum, fractured collarbone, severely fractured scapula, multiple broken ribs, broken right hand, broken nose and facial lacerations.

“I require surgery on my scapula but due to my punctured lung have to wait,” Mr Houlihan said.

“Conditions in the Greek hospital are very poor and we have a big language barrier.

“My wife Katie is with me and she is dealing with insurance companies and the Australian embassy to get me to another country for more surgery.”

Mr Houlihan, a member of Albury Wodonga Motorcycle Club, was the only Australian competitor in the Hellas Rally Raid, which describes itself as the best amateur rally raid in Europe and has more than 200 competitors.

“We race approximately 400 kilometres per day in varying terrain comprising of mountain ranges, snow, deep river crossings and beach sand dunes,” Mr Houlihan said.

Steve McDowall, of Motorcycle Life, said the Border rider, racing a KTM 450, finished the first day in 46th place overall and 15th in the M2 450 class.

“That’s a fantastic result given this is Andrew’s first participation in the tough event and his first international rally,” he said.

Mr Houlihan moved up to 35^th overall after day two but a good turn on the third day affected his position.

The competitor had been going well until the rider in front broke his chain and came off his bike.

“I decided to stay with him to make sure he was OK and help repair his chain,” Mr Houlihan told Motorcycle Life. 

“Eventually after 30 minutes we were going again, but had lost a huge amount of time.”

Entering the day of his crash, Mr Houlihan sat 44^th overall.

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