A matador dubbed 'The Pirate' has had his glass eye knocked out after being gored by a bull during a fight in Spain.

Juan Jose Padilla, who has worn an eyepatch and glass eye since he was first gored in the face by a bull in 2011, was sent flying by the powerful animal during the bullfight held yesterday at the festival of Fallas in Valencia.

Dramatic pictures from inside the bullring, show the legendary matador's facial scars revealed when his eye patch flew off and his glass eye went soaring through the air.

Padilla, who is known professionally as the Cyclone of Jerez, was gored in the right thigh and in the chest region during the bullfight on Sunday.

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After taking a few moments to recover immediately after the incident, and with a tourniquet containing the bleeding on his thigh, Padilla faced the animal again, slaying the beast and cutting off an ear, which he took with him to the clinic.

He was treated by medics at the bullring before he was later transferred to the hospital where he was kept in for treatment to his injuries.

He has worn an eyepatch since losing his eye in October 2011, in an incident that saw him paralysed down one side of his face after he was horrifically gored during a bullfight.

The bull's horn pierced Juan Jose Padilla's jaw and emerged through his left eye socket during the grizzly incident, at the northeastern city of Zaragoza's Fiestas Del Pilar event.

With blood gushing from his head, he was helped out of the ring screaming "I can't see, I can't see".

He was lucky to survive the 2011 incident and underwent a life-saving five-hour operation to repair severe damage to his eye, bone, muscle and skin.

Five months later in March 2012, he returned to the bullring in Olivenza with an eyepatch - gaining him the nickname 'The Pirate'.

Months earlier, in May 2012, he suffered another mishap when a bull picked him up and threw him in the air during a fight in Madrid.

He was lucky to escape serious injury when he was dashed to the ground at Las Ventas bullring, after taunting the 1,400lb animal before it rammed into his chest.

In 2001, the Jerez native also suffered serious injuries to his neck during a fight in Pamplona.

He then had the same eye-socket gouged again after tormenting one of the powerful animals at the La Misericordia bullring in Zaragoza, in October last year.

The 43-year-old fell to the floor after being charged at by the 100-stone (635kg) animal, sending his glass eye flying.

He was rushed to hospital after taking a blow close to his eyepatch, in similar circumstances to the mauling which saw him lose his left eye.

Undeterred by his most recent serious run-in, Padilla has vowed not to cancel the running of the bulls event that is scheduled in Castellon for the festivities of La Magdalena, which begins on March 18.